How to return value from an asynchronous callback function?

Question

This question is asked many times in SO. But still I can't get stuff.

I want to get some value from callback. Look at the script below for clarification.

function foo(address){

      // google map stuff
      geocoder.geocode( { 'address': address}, function(results, status) {
          results[0].geometry.location; // I want to return this value
      })

    }
    foo(); //result should be results[0].geometry.location; value

If I try to return that value just getting "undefined". I followed some ideas from SO, but still fails.

Those are:

function foo(address){
    var returnvalue;    
    geocoder.geocode( { 'address': address}, function(results, status) {
        returnvalue = results[0].geometry.location; 
    })
    return returnvalue; 
}
foo(); //still undefined

Answer 1

This is impossible as you cannot return from an asynchronous call inside a synchronous method.

In this case you need to pass a callback to foo that will receive the return value

function foo(address, fn){
  geocoder.geocode( { 'address': address}, function(results, status) {
     fn(results[0].geometry.location); 
  });
}

foo("address", function(location){
  alert(location); // this is where you get the return value
});

The thing is, if an inner function call is asynchronous, then all the functions 'wrapping' this call must also be asynchronous in order to 'return' a response.

If you have a lot of callbacks you might consider taking the plunge and use a promise library like Q.