async function returns Promise { }?

Question

I have the following async function:

async function readFile () {
  let content = await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    fs.readFile(\'./file.txt\',         


        

Answer 1

All async functions return a promise as was mentioned in the comments. You could therefore re-write your readFile function like this:

function readFile() {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    fs.readFile('./file.txt', function (err, content) {
      if (err) {
        return reject(err)
      }
      resolve(content)
    })
  })
}

You would then consume the return value of readFile via await:

console.log(await readFile()) // will log your actual file contents.

The usual workflow with this paradigm is to break your async operations into separate functions that each return a promise, and then run them all inside a broader async function, much like you suggest, but with awaits and some error handling like so:

async function doSomething () {
  try {  
    const fileCheck = await fileExists(path)

    if (fileCheck) {
      const buffer = await readFile(path)
      await updateDatabase(buffer)
      // Whatever else you want to do
    }
  } catch (err) {
    // handle any rejected Promises here.
  }
}