Sequential execution in node.js

Question

I have code like

common.findOne('list', {'listId': parseInt(request.params. istId)}, function(err, result){       
  if(err) {
    console.log(err);
  }
  else {
    var tArr = new Array();               
    if(result.tasks) {
      var tasks = result.tasks;
      for(var i in tasks) {
        console.log(tasks[i]);
        common.findOne('tasks', {'taskId':parseInt(tasks[i])}, function(err,res){
          tArr[i]  = res;       
          console.log(res);                     
        });                       
      }
      console.log(tArr);
    }               
    return response.send(result); 
  }
});

It is not executed sequentially in node.js so I get an empty array at the end of execution. Problem is it will first execute console.log(tArr); and then execute

common.findOne('tasks',{'taskId':parseInt(tasks[i])},function(err,res){
      tArr[i]  = res;       
      console.log(res);                                         
});                       

Is there any mistake in my code or any other way for doing this. Thanks!

Answer 1

As you are probably aware, things run asynchronously in node.js. So when you need to get things to run in a certain order you need to make use of a control library or basically implement it yourself.

I highly suggest you take a look at async, as it will easily allow you to do something like this:

var async = require('async');

// ..

if(result.tasks) {
  async.forEach(result.tasks, processEachTask, afterAllTasks);

  function processEachTask(task, callback) {
    console.log(task);
    common.findOne('tasks', {'taskId':parseInt(task)}, function(err,res) {
      tArr.push(res); // NOTE: Assuming order does not matter here
      console.log(res);
      callback(err);
    });
  }

  function afterAllTasks(err) {
    console.log(tArr);
  }
}

The main things to see here is that processEachTask gets called with each task, in parallel, so the order is not guaranteed. To mark that the task has been processed, you will call callback in the anonymous function from findOne. This allows you to do more async work in processEachTask but still manage to signify when it is done. When every task is done, it will then call afterAllTasks.

Take a look at async to see all the helper functions that it provides, it is very useful!