MongoDB: cursor.toArray returns Promise { <pending> }

Question

Situation

I wrote a query:

var results = db.collection('diseases').find({
  'ttl.txt': {
    $regex: data,
    $options: 'i'
  }
}).toArray();

Problem

Then I printed results to a console.

if (results.length > 0) {
  console.log(results);
}

ToArray method must return array of found documents. But this method returns me this string: Promise { <pending> }.

Question

How can I return array of found documents instead of this string?

PS

toArray: Link to the documentation

Answer 1

You are getting this error because the find() method is asynchronous, that's why the promise is pending: it is still fetching.

db.collection('diseases').find({
  'ttl.txt': {
    $regex: data,
    $options: 'i'
  }
}).toArray().then((data) => {
    // Here you can do something with your data
    doSomethingWithTheResult(result)
})

Notice that you have your data inside a callback. For more info about promises check Promise

Depending on your node version (7.6+ I believe), you can use something like this

async function getResults() {
    return db.collection('diseases').find({
        'ttl.txt': {
        $regex: data,
        $options: 'i'
        }
    }).toArray();
}

const results = await getResults();

So your code with look like a synchronous code. The key here is the async/await command that wait for the promise results.

Hope it helps!

Answer 2

In the toArray() method you write a callback function:

var results = db.collection('diseases').find({
  'ttl.txt': {
    $regex: data,
    $options: 'i'
  }
}).toArray(function(err, result) {
     if (results.length > 0) {
       console.log(results);
     }
});