AngularJS $promise then() data undefined

Question

I am trying to get data assigned to a $scope variable. Inside my $promise.then() function it is displaying correctly but outside the function it shows as undefined. The foll

Answer 1

The function passed to .then() will be called after the data has been fetched from the backend. The other console.log() (the one outside of .then()) will be called immediately after the request has been made, and not after it has been completed, thus the tasks is undefined.

Consider the timing (of course times are only an example):

// time = 0.000 sec. You make a request to the backend
$scope.test = Tests.get({id: 1});

$scope.test.$promise.then(function(data) {
    // time = 1.000 sec. Request is completed. 
    // data is available, so you assign it to $scope.tasks
    $scope.tasks = data.tasks;
    console.log($scope.tasks);
});

// time = 0.000 sec (!!!) This has been called NOT AFTER
// the callback, but rather immediately after the Tests.get()
// So the data is not available here yet.
console.log($scope.tasks);