Async Functions inside a Loop

[Jeremy_Oglesby]

@Kasra @Stephen_Suen @Shrey_Banga and any other JavaScript :mage: ‍♂

Is it possible at all to call an async function from inside a loop?

I’m trying to run a script that contains this loop:

tablesToClear.forEach(table => {
  let recordsToDelete = table.records.map(record => record.id);
  let recordsDeleted = await batchAnd('Delete', table, recordsToDelete);

  if (recordsDeleted !== null) {
    totalRecordsDeleted += recordsDeleted;
  }
});

where batchAnd() is defined as an async function that makes a call to table.deleteRecordsAsync().

I’m getting this error:

ERROR
SyntaxError: await is only valid in async function
    at new Function (<anonymous>)
    at _callee2$ (blob:https://block---falsh-z06h-lq-e-pb--68v3t0m.airtableblocks.com/e9e14464-0db0-424f-ad41-111819081f76:3359:53)
    at tryCatch (blob:https://block---falsh-z06h-lq-e-pb--68v3t0m.airtableblocks.com/e9e14464-0db0-424f-ad41-111819081f76:181:21)
    at Generator.invoke [as _invoke] (blob:https://block---falsh-z06h-lq-e-pb--68v3t0m.airtableblocks.com/e9e14464-0db0-424f-ad41-111819081f76:400:26)
    at Generator.prototype.<computed> [as next] (blob:https://block---falsh-z06h-lq-e-pb--68v3t0m.airtableblocks.com/e9e14464-0db0-424f-ad41-111819081f76:234:25)
    at asyncGeneratorStep (blob:https://block---falsh-z06h-lq-e-pb--68v3t0m.airtableblocks.com/e9e14464-0db0-424f-ad41-111819081f76:6:26)
    at _next (blob:https://block---falsh-z06h-lq-e-pb--68v3t0m.airtableblocks.com/e9e14464-0db0-424f-ad41-111819081f76:28:11)
    at blob:https://block---falsh-z06h-lq-e-pb--68v3t0m.airtableblocks.com/e9e14464-0db0-424f-ad41-111819081f76:35:9
    at new Promise (<anonymous>)
    at blob:https://block---falsh-z06h-lq-e-pb--68v3t0m.airtableblocks.com/e9e14464-0db0-424f-ad41-111819081f76:24:14

Here’s a copy of the base I’m testing it in for greater context:

Airtable

Test - Airtable

Explore the "Test" base on Airtable.

I’m sure there’s something here that I’m not understanding about how async functions work :man_shrugging:t2:

[Shrey_Banga]

Yeah, you can use a for loop here instead: for (let table of tablesToClear) { ... }.

You can also make the callback async, like tablesToClear.forEach(async table => { ... }) but if you do that, the callback will be called for each table instantly without waiting for the previous batchAnd to finish, which will likely do the wrong thing.

[Jeremy_Oglesby]

Interesting!

Well, that was simple. Thank you, @Shrey_Banga.