How to handle promises while using recursive functions in JavaScript

Question

I want to log all the files in the directory recursively and return a confirmation when all files are logged. Here's the directory structure.

sample │ app.js └───Temp1 │ │ temp1.js │ └───Temp2 │ │ temp2.js

Here's the code

```

let readDirectory = function(dirname){
    return new Promise((resolve,reject)=>{
         fs.readdir(dirname,(err,files)=>{
            if(err) reject(err);
            files.forEach(file=>{
                fs.stat(`${dirname}/${file}`,(err,stats)=>{
                    if(stats.isDirectory()){
                        readDirectory(`${dirname}/${file}`)
                    }else{
                        resolve(console.log(file));                      
                    }
                })                
            })
        })
    })   
}



readDirectory(sampledir).then(()=>console.log('completed'));

```

Below is the result when I execute this function.

```

app.js
completed
temp1.js
temp2.js

```

Where should I resolve in order to get output as below.

```

app.js
temp1.js
temp2.js
completed

```

Answer 1

You need to resolve only after Promise.all resolves over every file. Also, you need to resolve each directory promise only after each file in the directory is finished:

let readDirectory = function(dirname) {
  return new Promise((resolveAll, rejectAll) => {
    fs.readdir(dirname, (err, files) => {
      if (err) rejectAll(err);
    })
  }).then((files) => {
    const filesPromises = files.map(file => (
      new Promise((resolveFile, rejectFile) => {
        fs.stat(`${dirname}/${file}`, (err, stats) => {
          if (err) rejectFile(err);
          if (stats.isDirectory()) {
            readDirectory(`${dirname}/${file}`)
             .then(resolveFile);
             .catch(rejectFile);
          } else {
            resolveFile(console.log(file));
          }
        })
      })
    ));
    return Promise.all(filesPromises).then(resolveAll);
  });
}

Note that this is pretty difficult to make sense of - you'll be far better off using async/await instead, something like this:

let readDirectory = async function(dirname) {
  const files = await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    fs.readdir(dirname, (err, files) => {
      if (err) reject(err);
      resolve(files);
    });
  });
  const filesPromises = files.map(async (file) => {
    const stats = await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      fs.stat(`${dirname}/${file}`, (err, stats) => {
        if (err) reject (err);
        else resolve(stats);
      });
    });
    if (stats.isDirectory()) await readDirectory(`${dirname}/${file}`);
    else console.log(file);
  });
  return Promise.all(filesPromises);
}