js async/await return promise

Question

Doing just a simple function:

 async function doAsync() {
 return await "test"
 }
 console.log(doAsync())

Output: Promise {[[PromiseStatus]]: "pending", [[PromiseValue]]: undefined}

What could be wrong?

• Patrick Hund: There is nothing wrong, that is exactly what an async function does, it returns a promise
• dfsq: Nothing is wrong, this is correct, it's a promise. You probably want to read a little about what promises are and how to work with them, before even jumping to async/await. doAsync().then((result) => console.log(result)).

Answer 1

async functions return a promise. Always. You must use .then() or await on that promise to get the value.

doAsync().then(val => {
 console.log(val);
});

While async and await sometimes let you write more synchronous-looking code inside the function itself, they don't fundamentally change asynchronous operations into synchronous ones.

An async function still returns a promise and the only way to get its value is to use .then() or await on it. If you're returning a value up the chain, you will eventually need to use .then() to get the value.

See the MDN description for an async function. Here's a quote:

Return value

A Promise which will be resolved with the value returned by the async function, or rejected with an uncaught exception thrown from within the async function.

• kotyara85: Well, I thought the main idea of async/wait to return an actual value to a variable. I used the promises but it doesn't any sense for me then, why would we need async/wait if we have to use promises again. Thanks
• jfriend00: @chic_cat - I can't really explain what await is useful for here in a comment (that's a longer article), but I find it most useful when there are multiple asynchronous functions that you want to run serially within a function. I'd suggest you read some of the hundreds of tutorials on async/await on the web. It does not turn an async function into a non-async function. You can't do that in Javascript.
• kotyara85: Ok, gotcha. Thanks!