I cannot access my array objects anywhere, how can I access them in swift?

Question

How can I access my array objects in another function, array objects from arr and from emails. I can so far only access my array objects inside of the else statement when I call auth.auth() function. I want to find out how I can do this.

let store = CNContactStore()
            
            store.requestAccess(for: .contacts) { (granted, err) in
                if let err = err{
                    print(err.localizedDescription)
                    return
                }
                if granted{
                    print("Access granted")
                    let keys = [CNContactGivenNameKey, CNContactFamilyNameKey, CNContactEmailAddressesKey]
                    let req = CNContactFetchRequest(keysToFetch: keys as [CNKeyDescriptor])
                    do {
                        
                        try store.enumerateContacts(with: req) { (contact, stop) in
                            print(contact.emailAddresses.first?.value as Any)
                            if let em = contact.emailAddresses.first?.value{
                                //print("cool")
                                Auth.auth().fetchProviders(forEmail: em as String, completion: {
                                    (providers, error) in
    
                                    if error != nil {
                                        print("wierd")
                                    }else{
                                        if providers == nil{
                                            print("No active account")
                                        }else{
                                            self.emails.append(em as String)
                                            self.arr.append(contact.givenName + " " + contact.familyName)
                                            print("Active Account")
                                            print(self.arr)
                                            print(self.emails)
                                        }
                                    }
                                })
                            
                            }else{
                                //print("wow")
                            }
                        }
                        
                    }catch let err{
                        print(err.localizedDescription)
                    }
                }else{
                    print("Access denied")
                }
            }
            print("Arr")
            print(self.arr)
            print(self.emails)
            print("Emails")

I want to find out how I can access my array elements in "arr" and in "emails" in another function, because my ultimate goal is to put out the array info in a tableView.

Answer 1

Data is loaded from Firebase asynchronously. While you may store it in variables that can be accessed from anywhere, the timing matters.

In your code, when the print(self.arr) runs, the self.arr.append(...) hasn't run yet. You can most easily see this by placing breakpoints on these lines and running the code in a debugger, or by placing some logging code and checking its output.

For this reason, all code that needs data from the database needs to be inside the completion handler or be called from there.

For some more on this, and examples of solutions, see:

• Code not finishing the function, it is ending execution halfway through, which in turn includes more links
• Make code with Firebase asynchronous
• Why isn't my function that pulls information from the database working?, which even more links
• Finish all asynchronous requests before loading data?, using a dispatch group
• Asynchronous Swift call into array
• using variables outside of completion block
• wait for two asynchronous completion functions to finish, before executing next line code
• Finish all asynchronous requests before loading data?