I can't read file after checking if it exists in fs - node.js

Question

So I'm trying to check if a file exists before I read that file but if I put the check before the read the read just becomes nothing even tho the data exists.
I've tried putting it below but then my file would just have an error from trying to read from a blank file.
bot.on('chat', function(username, message) {
var time = clock.zonedDateTime('SYSTEM').toString()
if (!fs.existsSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)' + '/players/' + username)) {
fs.mkdirSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)' + '/players/' + username);
}
if (!fs.existsSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)' + '/players/' + username + '/lirstwords/')) {
fs.mkdirSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)' + '/players/' + username + '/lirstwords/');
}
if (!fs.existsSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)' + '/players/' + username + '/lirstwords/lastwords/')) {
fs.mkdirSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)' + '/players/' + username + '/lirstwords/lastwords/');
}
if (!fs.existsSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)' + '/players/' + username + '/lirstwords/lastwords/' + 'firstwords.txt')) {
fs.writeFile('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)' + '/players/' + username + '/lirstwords/lastwords/' + 'lastwords.txt', 'sentat:' + time + ',<' + username + '>' + message, 'utf8', function(err) {
if (err) throw err;
});
}
if (message.startsWith('!lastwords ')) {
if (cooldown == 1) {
var lastwordsplit = message.toString().split(" ")
var lastwordperson = lastwordsplit[1]
if (fs.existsSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)/players/' + lastwordperson + '/lirstwords/lastwords/lastwords.txt')) {
bot.chat(fs.readFileSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)/players/' + lastwordperson + '/lirstwords/lastwords/lastwords.txt', 'utf8'))
console.log('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)/players/' + lastwordperson + '/lirstwords/lastwords/lastwords.txt')
}
if (!fs.existsSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)/players/' + lastwordperson + '/lirstwords/lastwords/lastwords.txt')) {
bot.chat(" does not have any documents that include the user " + lastwordperson)
if (!fs.existsSync('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)' + '/players/' + username + '/lirstwords/lastwords/' + 'firstwords.txt')) {
fs.writeFile('C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)' + '/players/' + username + '/lirstwords/lastwords/' + 'lastwords.txt', 'sentat:' + time + ',<' + username + '>' + message, 'utf8', function(err) {
if (err) throw err;
});
}
}
}
}
});

Answer 1

You're not waiting for the fs.writeFile() to complete before you try to then read that data from the file in the lines of code below so probably all you will see is an empty file or maybe it won't even be created yet when you try to read it.
Then, you're mixing synchronous logic with asynchronous writes with no way to communicate success or errors. If this can use synchronous file I/O (which a server should never use except in startup code), then make it all synchronous file I/O.
If it all needs to be asynchronous, then it needs a complete rewrite and lots of this code can be refactored into a few shared functions.
It's not entirely clear to me everything that you're trying to accomplish in this function, but here's a simplified version of the logic that uses entirely asynchronous file I/O and attempts to DRY up the code a bit:
const mkdirp = require('mkdirp');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');
bot.on('chat', function(username, message) {
const time = clock.zonedDateTime('SYSTEM').toString();
const rootDir = 'C:/Users/La Fam/Desktop/kekbot_rewritten(tm)/players/';
const wordsDir = path.join(rootDir, username, 'lirstwords/lastwords');
const wordsFile = path.join(wordsDir, "lastwords.txt");
// do something useful when there's an error
// perhaps chat back that an unexpected error was encountered
function processError(err) {
console.log(err);
}
// make sure the desired directory exists (all the pieces of it)
mkdirp(wordsDir, function(err) {
if (err) return processError(err);
let data = 'sentat:' + time + ',<' + username + '>' + message;
fs.writeFile(wordsFile, data, {encoding: 'utf8', flag: 'wx'}, function(err) {
if (err) {
// we expect an error here if the file already exists, the wx flag will prevent overwriting existing file
// we do it this way to avoid race condition on checking if it exists and avoid extra system call
if (err.code !== 'EEXIST') {
processError(err);
}
if (message.startsWith('!lastwords ') && cooldown === 1) {
const lastwordperson = message.toString().split(" ")[1];
const lastWordFile = path.join(rootDir, lastwordperson, '/lirstwords/lastwords/lastwords.txt');
fs.readFile(lastWordFile, 'utf8', function(err, data) {
if (err) {
// treat file not found separately
if (err === 'ENOENT') {
bot.chat(" does not have any documents that include the user " + lastwordperson);
} else {
processError(err);
}
} else {
bot.chat(data);
}
});
}
});
});
});