Can't add key from function to dictionary - node.js

Question

My code:
var price = {};
function getPrice(price) {
const https = require('https');
var item = ('M4A1-S | Decimator (Field-Tested)')
var body = '';
var price = {};
https.get('https://steamcommunity.com/market/priceoverview/?appid=730&market_hash_name=' + item, res => {
res.on('data', data => {
body += data;
})
res.on('end', () => price ['value'] = parseFloat(JSON.parse(body).median_price.substr(1))); //doesnt add to dict
}).on('error', error => console.error(error.message));
}
price['test'] = "123" //adds to dict fine
getPrice(price)
console.log(price);
Output:
{ test: '123' }
as you can see, the "test: 123" gets added, but the "value: xxx" from the function doesn't. Why is that?

Answer 1

There are two main problems here:
You're redeclaring the variable inside your function so you're declaring a separate, new variable and modifying that so the higher scoped variable, never gets your .value property.
You're assigning the property inside an asynchronous callback that runs sometime later after your function has returned and thus your function actually returns and you do the console.log() too soon before you have even obtained the value. This is a classic issue with return asynchronously obtained data from a function in Javascript. You will need to communicate back that data with a callback or with a promise.
I would also suggest that you use a higher level library that supports promises for getting your http request and parsing the results. There are many that already support promises, already read the whole response, already offer JSON parsing built-in, do appropriate error detection and propagation, etc... You don't need to write all that yourself. My favorite library for this is got(), but you can see a list of many good choices here. I would strongly advise that you use promises to communicate back your asynchronous result.
My suggestion for fixing this would be this code:
const got = require('got');
async function getPrice() {
const item = 'M4A1-S | Decimator (Field-Tested)';
const url = 'https://steamcommunity.com/market/priceoverview/?appid=730&market_hash_name=' + item;
const body = await got(url).json();
if (!body.success || !body.median_price) {
throw new Error('Could not obtain price');
}
return parseFloat(body.median_price.substr(1));
}
getPrice().then(value => {
// use value here
console.log(value);
}).catch(err => {
console.log(err);
});
When I run this, it logs 5.2.

Answer 2

You're actually console.logging .price before you're setting .value; .value isn't set until the asynchronous call fires.

Answer 3

You are declaring price again inside the function and also not waiting for the asynchronous task to finish.
const https = require("https");
const getPrice = () =>
new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
const item = "M4A1-S | Decimator (Field-Tested)";
let body = "";
return https
.get(
`https://steamcommunity.com/market/priceoverview/?appid=730&market_hash_name=${item}`,
res => {
res.on("data", data => {
body += data;
});
res.on("end", () =>
resolve(
parseFloat(JSON.parse(body).median_price.substr(1))
)
);
}
)
.on("error", error => reject(error));
});
const main = async () => {
try{
const price = await getPrice();
//use the price value to do something
}catch(error){
console.error(error);
}
};
main();