Tukukkk

I search and read about Asynchronous functions and callbacks. But i was not able to solve my problem for a week. I want to do 'fs readfile' inside loop with order. I try the following but i am not successful.

// on the code below, console.log print the value in random order and 'storedata' is empity.

// my goal is to do readfile in loop orderly and store the value



router.get("/files/readfiles", function(req,res){

  var storedata= ; 

  var filenames= ["file1","file2","file3","file4"]; 



  for (var i=0; i< filenames.length; i++){      

    fs.readFile('views/allfiles/'+ filenames[i] +'.ejs','utf8',function (err, data) {

      if (err) throw err;  

      storedata.push(data);         

      console.log(data);         

    });

    console.log(storedata); // this returns empty array

  });

I also try in another way:

router.get("/files/readfiles", function(req,res){

var filenames= ["file1","file2","file3","file4"];   



filenames.forEach(readfiles);



function readfiles(value) {

  var dataread =  fs.readFile('views/allfiles/'+ value +'.ejs','utf8')



    console.log (dataread);

   }

});

on the above try i get an error of: TypeError [ERR_INVALID_CALLBACK]: Callback must be a function.

I am new to Asynchronous methods any help please.

If you're using Node v10 or above you can use the fs promises API and async/await.

To read the files in series:

router.get( "/files/readfiles", async function( req, res ) {

  const storedata = [ ]; 

  const filenames = [ "file1", "file2" , "file3", "file4" ]; 



  for (let i = 0; i < filenames.length; i++ ) {      

    const data = await fs.promises.readFile( 'views/allfiles/'+ filenames[i] +'.ejs', { encoding: 'utf8' } ); 

    storedata.push( data );         

  }



  console.log( storedata ); 



} );

or to read them in parallel:

router.get( "/files/readfiles", async function( req, res ) {

  const promises = [ ]; 

  const filenames = [ "file1", "file2", "file3", "file4" ]; 



  for (let i = 0; i < filenames.length; i++ ) {      

    const promise = fs.promises.readFile( 'views/allfiles/'+ filenames[i] +'.ejs', { encoding: 'utf8' } ); 

    promises.push( promise );         

  }



  const storedata = await Promise.all( promises );



  console.log( storedata ); 



} );

You should use ES2017 async/await syntax like this.

router.get("/files/readfiles", async function(req, res){

  var storedata= ; 

  var filenames= ["file1","file2","file3","file4"]; 



  for (var i=0; i< filenames.length; i++){  

    await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {    

        fs.readFile('views/allfiles/'+ filenames[i] +'.ejs','utf8',function (err, data) {

          if (err) return reject( err )

          storedata.push(data);

          resolve();               

        });

    })

    console.log(storedata);

  }

});

Your second code doesnt provide a callback function, thats your error.

Your first code, you are trying to work with callbacks, so you'll need to follow your code nested into the callback, thats what is called callback hell

It would look like this:

router.get("/files/readfiles", function(req,res){

  var storedata= ; 

  var filenames= ["file1","file2","file3","file4"]; 



  for (let i = 0; i< filenames.length; i++){      

    fs.readFile('views/allfiles/'+ filenames[i] +'.ejs','utf8',function (err, data) {

      if (err) throw err;  

      storedata[i] = data;



      if (storedata.length === filenames.length) {

        console.log(storedata);

        // do stuff you want, like:

        res.send(storedata)

      }            

     });

  });

If you plan on using node 10, I recommend you look at the other answer with Promise.all. Async/await is great