how do I assign a returned value from an async function to a variable

Question

I am new to JavaScript and have been trying to read up a lot on why this is not working. Here is my code. I have also read a number of articles here on stack overflow but still feeling dense

Also if my title does not make sense, please suggest an edit

 listRef.listAll()
            .then(response => {
                let files = []  
                response.items.forEach(item => {
                    
                  var text
                  getText(item.name).then(res=>{text = res});
                    
                    const id = {uid: guid()}
                    const url = item.getDownloadURL().then(url => {return url} )
                    const gsurl = `gs://archivewebsite.appspot.com/${folder}/${item.name}`
                    files.push({...item, name:item.name, url, gsurl, id:id.uid, text})
                
                    });
                    this.files = files;
                  })
            .catch(error => console.log(error));


  async function getText(docID) {
        var docRef = firestore.collection("recipes").doc(docID);
        let doc = await docRef.get()
        if (doc.exists){
           return doc.data().text
         }
}

that code "works" in that it logs the response to the console but the text variable is a pending promise object.

I understand that async functions return a promise so when I call getText I need to use .then - what I am struggling with and have refactored this code a few times is this: how can I assign the value of doc.data().text to a variable to be used later in other words, how can var text be an actual string and not a promise object pending

Also for my own learning on javascript inside the async function if I replace

if (doc.exists){
           return doc.data().text
         }

with

 if (doc.exists){
           return Promise.resolve(doc.data().text)
         }

I get the same result in console.log - is this expected? is return simply short hand for the handler to resolve the promise?

I have also refactored this code to be non async and I get the same result where my var text is basically a pending promise and never the resolved data

Thanks for your help - also any articles to help explain this to me would be great! I have been going through courses on udemy but little confused by this right now

Answer 1

Actually you are assigning the complete promise to the variable text

Replace

var text = getText(item.name).then(res=>console.log(res))

by

var text = await getText(item.name);

OR

var text
getText(item.name).then(res=>{text = res});

Answer 2

OK I worked with someone at work and found a solution - it was related to this post https://stackoverflow.com/a/37576787/5991792 I was using async function inside a for each loop

the refactored code is here

async function buildFiles(){
  let items = await listRef.listAll()
  let files = []
  for (const item of item.items){
    const text = await getText(item.name)
    const url = await item.getDownloadURL()
    const gsurl = `gs://archivewebsite.appspot.com/${folder}/${sermon.name}`
    files.push({...item, name:item.name, url, gsurl, text})  
}
return files
}


 async function getText(docID) {
        var docRef = firestore.collection("recipies").doc(docID);
        let doc = await docRef.get()
        if (doc.exists){return await doc.data().text}}



buildFiles().then(res=>this.files = res)

Thanks also to @cyqsimon and @Nav Kumar V

Answer 3

Of course text is going to be a Promise. Promise.then() always returns a Promise.

Consider this code:

function doA(n) {
  // do something here...
  console.log("A" + n);
}
asnyc function doB(n) {
  // do something here...
  console.log("B" + n);
}

doA(1);
doA(2);
doB(3); // async
doA(4);
doB(5); // async
doB(6); // async
doA(7);

What do you expect the output to be?

• 1, 2, 4, and 7 will always be in order, because they are executed synchronously.
• 3 will not ever print before 1 and 2. Likewise, 5 and 6 will not ever print before 1, 2, and 4.
• However, 3, 5, and 6 can be printed in any order, because async functions do not guarantee execution order once created.
• Also, 4 can print before 3. Likewise, 7 can print before 5 and 6.

Basically, think of async functions as a parallel task that runs independently (although not really; single thread JS only simulates this behavior). It can return (fulfill/reject) at any moment. For this reason, you cannot just simply assign a return value of an async function to a variable using synchronous code - the value is not guaranteed to be (and probably is not) available at the moment of synchronous execution.

---

Therefore you need to put all the code that requires the value of text to be set into the callback block of the Promise, something like this:

getText(item.name).then((text) => {
  // put everything that uses text here
});

This can of course lead to the infamous "callback hell", where you have layers inside layers of async callback. See http://callbackhell.com for details and mitigation techniques.

async/await is just one of the newer ways to do the same thing: MDN has an excellent article here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/JavaScript/Asynchronous/Async_await