How to wait for function to finish before continuning in Node.js

Question

I am trying to create a route in Node.js/Express that reads data from two queries and then increments a count based on that data from the queires. Since Node.js is asynchronous my total is displayed before all the data has been read.

I created a simple example that gets to the point of what I am currently doing

var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();


var total = 0;

/* GET home page. */
router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
  increment(3);
  increment(2);
  console.log(total);
  res.end();
});



var increment = function(n){
    //Wait for n seconds before incrementing total n times
    setTimeout(function(){
    for(i = 0; i < n; i++){
        total++;
    }   
    }, n *1000);
};
module.exports = router;

I'm not sure what I would have to do in order to wait until both functions finish before I print the total. Would I have to create a custom Event Emitter to achieve this?

Answer 1

Embrace asynchronicity:

var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();


var total = 0;

/* GET home page. */
router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
  increment(3, function() {                 // <=== Use callbacks
      increment(2, function() {
          console.log(total);
          res.end();
      });
  });
});



var increment = function(n, callback){    // <=== Accept callback
    //Wait for n seconds before incrementing total n times
    setTimeout(function(){
        for(i = 0; i < n; i++){
            total++;
        }   
        callback();                        // <=== Call callback
    }, n *1000);
};
module.exports = router;

Or use a promises library, or use events. In the end, they're all asynchronous callback mechanisms with slightly different semantics.

Answer 2

You can use some library like async.

Here is the code:

var total = 0;
/* GET users listing. */
router.get('/', function(req, res) {
    async.series([
            function(callback){
                increment(2, function(){
                    callback(null, "done");
                });
            },
            function(callback){
                increment(3, function(){
                    callback(null, "done");
                });
            }
        ],
        function(err, result){
            console.log(total);
            res.send('respond the result:' + total);
        });
});

var increment = function(n, callback){
    //Wait for n seconds before incrementing total n times
    setTimeout(function(){
        for(var i = 0; i < n; i++){
            total++;
        }
        callback();
    }, n *1000);
};