asynchronous - node.js continues execution without waiting for a require to complete. -

i'm trying access variable in required node file. file requiring continues without waiting variable set. how app.coffee wait before continuing?

i have 2 files:

db.coffee:

databaseurl = 'mongodb://localhost/db' mongoose = require('mongoose') mongoose.connect(databaseurl)  db = mongoose.connection records = []  db.on('error', console.error.bind(console, 'connection error:'))  db.once('open', () ->          console.log('connected database: ', databaseurl)     )  schema = new mongoose.schema({play_counts: {type: number}, album_name: {type: string }})  albums = mongoose.model('albums', schema)  albums.find({}, {}, (err, data) ->         if err?             console.log("error: failure retrieve albums.")             return         else             records = data     )  console.log(records)  module.export = records 

and app.coffee:

db = require('./db')  console.log(db) 

when run app.coffee output of [] console log in app, output db.coffee, though require call.

whats best way app wait db complete before continuing can access record variable in db.coffee. help.

in sense db.coffee has completed. code inside file has been executed.

it's want, records isn't available yet because function responsible getting it, albums.find takes third argument (err, data), function , it's called later when mongoose has found records in database. it's disk operation , nodejs's asynchronous nature shines, in enabled "move on" , continue execution of other things while mongoose fetching said data.

so in reality, don't wanna depend on db.coffee being completed, wanna wait albums.find function have called callback passed third argument - (err, data)

it make more sense export albums db.coffee rather records.

albums = mongoose.model('albums', schema) module.export = albums; 

and in app.coffee you'd fetching/finding records:

albums = require('./db') albums.find({}, {}, (err, data) ->     if err?         console.log("error: failure retrieve albums.")         return     else         console.log(records) );