Node mongoose find query in loop not working

mongodb, mongoose, node.js

Solution

Welcome to async-land :-)

With JavaScript anything happens in parallel except your code. This means in your specific case, that the callbacks cannot be invoked before your loop has ended. You have two options:

a) Rewrite your loop from a sync for-loop to an async recurse-loop:

function asyncLoop( i, callback ) {
    if( i < answers.length ) {
        console.log(i)
        var question_ans = eval('(' + answers[i]+ ')');

        var question_to_find = question_ans.question.toString()
        var ans = question_ans.ans.toString()
        console.log(ans)
        quiz.where("question",question_to_find).exec(function(err,results)  {
            console.log(ans, results)
            if (ans == "t") {
                user_type = results.t  
            } else if (ans == "f") {
                user_type=results.f      
            }
            asyncLoop( i+1, callback );
        })
    } else {
        callback();
    }
}
asyncLoop( 0, function() {
    // put the code that should happen after the loop here
});

Additionally I recommend the study of this blog. It contains two further steps up the async-loop-stairway. Very helpful and very important.

b) Put your async function call into a closure with format

(function( ans ) {})(ans);

and provide it with the variable you want to keep (here: `ans`):

for (var i=0;i < answers.length;i++) {
    console.log(i)
    var question_ans = eval('(' + answers[i]+ ')');

    var question_to_find = question_ans.question.toString()
    var ans = question_ans.ans.toString()
    console.log(ans)
    (function( ans ) {
        quiz.where("question",question_to_find).exec(function(err,results)  {
            console.log(ans, results)
            if (ans == "t") {
                user_type = results.t  
            } else if (ans == "f") {
                user_type=results.f      
            }
        })
    })(ans);
}

Problem

Original source