Synchronous for loop in node js - node.js

Question

So let's say I have the following for loop
for(var i = 0; i < array.length; i++){
Model.findOne({ _id = array[i].id}, function(err, found){
//Some stuff
});
}
How do I make this code work? Every time I run it I get array[i] = undefinedbecause the mongo-db query is asynchronous and the loop has already iterated 5 times by the time the first query is even completed. How do I go about tackling this issue and waiting for the query to complete before going on to the next iteration?

Answer 1

This doesn't specifically answer your question, but addresses your problem.
I'd use an $in query and do the filtering all at once. 20 calls to the db is pretty slow compared to 1:
// grab your ids
var arrayIds = myArray.map(function(item) {
return item._id;
});
// find all of them
Model.find({_id: {$in: arrayIds}}, function(error, foundItems) {
if (error) {
// error handle
}
// set up a map of the found ids
var foundItemsMap = {};
foundItems.forEach(function(item) {
foundItemsMap[item._id] = true;
});
// pull out your items that haven't been created yet
var newItems = [];
for (var i = 0; i < myArray.length; i++) {
var arrayItem = myArray[i];
if ( foundItemsMap[arrayItem._id] ) {
// this array item exists in the map of foundIds
// so the item already exists in the database
}
else {
// it doesn't exist, push it into the new array
newItems.push(arrayItem);
}
}
// now you have `newItems`, an array of objects that aren't in the database
});

Answer 2

One of the easiest ways to accomplish something like you want is using promises. You could use the library q to do this:
var Q = require('q');
function fetchOne(id) {
var deferred = Q.defer();
Model.findOne({ _id = id}, function(err, found){
if(err) deferred.reject(err);
else deferred.resolve(found);
});
return deferred.promise;
}
function fetch(ids, action) {
if(ids.length === 0) return;
var id = ids.pop();
fetchOne(id).then(function(model) {
action(model);
fetch(ids, action);
});
}
fetch([1,2,3,4,5], function(model) { /* do something */ });
It is not the most beautiful implementation, but I'm sure you get the picture :)

Answer 3

Not sure if this is the right way, it could be a bit expensive but this how i did it.
I think the trick is to pull all your data and then looking for an id match.
Model.find(function(err, data) {
if (err) //handle it
for (var i=0; i<array.length; i++) {
for (var j=0; ij<data.length; j++) {
if(data[j].id == array[i].id) {
// do something
}
}
}
}