Why does await function return pending promise

Question

let request = require('request-promise')

function get(url) {
  let _opt = {}
  let response = (async () => {
    try {
      var ret = await request(url, _opt);
      return ret;
    } catch (e) {
      console.log(e)
    }
  })();
  return response
}

console.log(get('http://www.httpbin.org/ip'))

gives:

Promise { <pending> }

Why doesn't it wait for my response?

Answer 1

Why doesn't it wait for my response?

That's simple, because you are returning a promise. Node js is single thread and is executed in a non blocking way.
That means that return response in your get function is executed before the resolution of response variable.
Try as follow:

let request = require('request-promise')

function get(url) {
    let _opt = {}
    return request(url, _opt);
}

async function some () {
    console.log(await get('http://www.httpbin.org/ip'));
}

some();

This example is also returning a promise, but in this case we are awaiting for the promise resolution.

Hope this help.