getting data from async function

Question

i have this code:

    function getData(){
        db.transaction(function(tx){
            tx.executeSql('SELECT * from q', [], function(tx, result){
                var q = [];
                for (var i=0; i < result.rows.length; i++) {
                    q.push(result.rows.item(i));
                };
                console.log(q.length);  // 3
                returnData(q);
            });
        });
    }

    function returnData(data){
        console.log(data.length); // 3
        return data;
    }

   var q = getData(); // undefined

and it don't work as expected (it don't return anything). A assume that happened, because db.transaction work asynchronous, but i'm using callback to return data. Can somebody explain why it doesn't work and how to fix that?

Answer 1

The standard way to do this is to include your own callback, like this:

function getData(callback){
    db.transaction(function(tx){
        tx.executeSql('SELECT * from q', [], function(tx, result){
            var q = [];
            for (var i=0; i < result.rows.length; i++) {
                q.push(result.rows.item(i));
            };
            console.log(q.length);  // 3
            callback(returnData(q));
        });
    });
}

function returnData(data){
    console.log(data.length); // 3
    return data;
}

getData(function(q) {
    /* do something with q */
});