Node.js function async return not awaiting

Question

I think I am having a problem understanding the await/promises in Node.js, I thought I was implementing it correctly but it does not look right...

I have this function to get a list of files from my Google Drive:

const listFiles = async () => {
 const filesList = await googleDrive.listFiles();
 filesList.forEach((file)=>{
 console.log(`File is ${file.name}`);
 });
 return filesList;
 }

This function works fine, but now I tried to call it like this in my main.js:

const listFiles = async () => {
 const filesList = await googleDrive.listFiles();
 filesList.forEach((file)=>{
 console.log(`File is ${file.name} with id`);
 });
 return filesList;
 }
const getFiles =() =>{
 const files = listFiles();
 console.log(files);
};
getFiles();

So my problem here is that, from getFiles()I always get Promise { <pending> } as a console.log...but in my listFiles(), I can see the files being printed correctly after the await....I do not really get it, after the await, the filesList should be ready and resolved.

What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

async function returns a promise, so you still have to await it

Return value

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

const listFiles = async () => {
 const filesList = await googleDrive.listFiles();
 filesList.forEach((file)=>{
 console.log(`File is ${file.name} with id`);
 });
 return filesList;
 }
const getFiles = async () =>{
 const files = await listFiles();
 console.log(files);
};
getFiles();

• codeKiller: ok thanks, now I guess getFiles also will return a promise, and again when i call it i will have to await, and over and over again, correct?
• hgb123: @codeKiller yeah, if in this case there is no task need to be executed sequentially after getFiles(), you could still call it this way
• Rupjyoti: Use .then & .catch when calling getFiles() . This is what I follow , all async await code , but the last one .then & .catch . If you don't catch the error , you will get "unhandled promise rejection" error when ever you have any error inside getFiles function.

Answer 2

listFiles is correctly listed as being async, but in this case, getFiles should be async too - it needs to await the results of listFiles.

Your code should then look as follows:

const listFiles = async () => {
 const filesList = await googleDrive.listFiles();
 filesList.forEach((file)=>{
 console.log(`File is ${file.name} with id`);
 });
 return filesList;
 }
const getFiles = async () =>{
 const files = await listFiles();
 console.log(files);
};
getFiles();