NodeJS/Express MongoDB toArray() doesn't work - node.js

Question

I am trying to get all documents into array so i can use array.forEach to do something with each document. I'm not into using stream.
according to mongodb official documentation, find() should return a cursor:
Consider the following example that applies toArray() to the cursor returned from the find() method:
var allProductsArray = db.products.find().toArray();
if (allProductsArray.length > 0) { printjson (allProductsArray[0]); }
https://www.mongodb.com/docs/manual/reference/method/cursor.toArray/
My current codebase:
//success, get and list apps in json
var userId = new ObjectId(resultUser._id);
var appRes = capidb.collection("api_applications").find({application_owner: userId}).toArray()
if (appRes) {
console.log("UserID: " + userId + " | : "+appRes.length)
res.send("ae")
//appRes.forEach(function(appRes) {
//console.log(appRes.application_name)
//})
} else {
res.status(204)
.json({success: false, code: "NoContent", message: "There wasn't any applications to list."})
}
doesn't work as properly. The console.log("UserID: " + userId + " | : "+appRes.length)
outputs: UserID: <the userId> | : undefined
<the userId> works properly, just masked out the actuall userId of mine.
So the .length returns "undefined", and why is that?
UPDATE:
I also tried this documentation: https://mongodb.github.io/node-mongodb-native/4.8/#find-all-documents
making an async function:
const findApplications = async function(userid) {
const appRes = await capidb.collection("api_applications").find({application_owner: userid}).toArray();
return appRes;
}
and initiating it:
//success, get and list apps in json
var userId = new ObjectId(resultUser._id);
const appRes = findApplications(userId);
if (appRes) {
console.log("UserID: " + userId + " | : "+appRes.length)
res.send("ae")
//appRes.forEach(function(appRes) {
//console.log(appRes.application_name)
//})
} else {
res.status(204)
.json({success: false, code: "NoContent", message: "There wasn't any applications to list."})
}
and that also returns undefined.
ASYNC UPDATE:
I tried to make the router function async, to access the findApplications() function:
router.get("/:tat", async function(req, res) {
...
}
and i also made the function request await:
const appRes = await findApplications(userId);
even tho now i get the error:
const appRes = await findApplications(userId);
^^^^^
SyntaxError: await is only valid in async function