We're calling this method, records.getQuotes, and

saving the result to a variable called quotes.

records.getQuotes reaches into our data store, gets all of the quotes, and

returns them to us.

Once we have all those quotes, we send them back to the client as JSON.

At the moment, however, we're getting back an empty object.

And this is because the getQuotes function is asynchronous.

All the functions in the records.js module use asynchronous functions to

closely mimic the behavior of an actual database.

And accessing a database is an inherently asynchronous operation,

meaning we can't be exactly sure when we're going to receive the information.

And in the meantime, JavaScript just keeps on going without waiting for

the data to return.

If you're new to the topic of asynchronous JavaScript, aren't familiar with promises,

or are totally new to async and await syntax.

I strongly recommend checking out the resources linked in the teacher's

notes below.

The getQuote function returns a promise, which uses Node's readFile method to

retrieve the data from the data.json file, then resolves the promise with that data.

The problem here is that the res.json method ends up running before

the getQuotes function has a chance to return any data.

JavaScript gets to this line of code and says, well, I guess there's

nothing in this quotes variable, and moves onto the next line of code.

The promise never has a chance to resolve,

and as a result, we end up sending back an empty object to the client.

What we need is a way to tell JavaScript, hey, stop.

Just hold on and wait for

this information to come back before running the next line of code.

We can do that using async and await.

We can await any function that returns a promise, so we'll await records.getQuotes.

This tells JavaScript to expect this method to return something, so

it shouldn't just give up on it and move on.

It should wait and tell this method,

return something to execute the next line of code.

The await function must be used inside of an async function.

This basically lets JavaScript know, hey, inside this function, we're going to ask

you to await some information before you speed on down the line.

So let's save and test this out by going back to the browser.

Refresh, and now we're returning our list of quotes.

There is some error handling that we could still do here, but

we'll get to that in a later video.

We'll continue to use async and await to build out the rest of our project.

So rest assured that we'll see and

talk about this again if you're still feeling unsure about it.

In the next video, we'll refactor our other get route to use our data store and

async await.