why module.exports return code as a text?

Question

The problem I'm having is that when using module.exports I'm getting the output as text.

profile.js

const dbProfile = require("./dbProfile");

async function User(interaction) {
  const embed = new EmbedBuilder()
    .setColor(0x0099ff)
    .setTitle("user profile ")
    .setURL("https://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ")
    .setDescription(`ExarID: ${dbProfile.profileInfo}`);
  await interaction.reply({
    ephemeral: true,
    embeds: [embed],
    fetchReply: true,
  });
  return 0;
}

dbProfile.js

const db = require("./dbStart");

module.exports = {
  profileInfo: function () {
    console.log(db.users);
    return db.users;
  },
};

dbStart.js

exports.users = function () {
  conn.query("SELECT ExarID FROM users", function (err, result, fields) {
    if (err) {
      console.log(err);
    }
    console.log(JSON.parse(result));
    return result;
  });
};

What the bot replies:

Answer 1

You're never running your functions, and the .toString() of uncalled functions returns the source code.

You need to change your code to call the functions

in dbProfile.js

const users = db.users();
console.log(users)
return users;

in profile.js

.setDescription(`ExarID: ${dbProfile.profileInfo()}`)

---

You also have a bug in dbStart.js since you're never actually returning anything (see How do I return the response from an asynchronous call?)

This involves changing all your code to work asynchronously

profile.js

const dbProfile = require("./dbProfile");
async function User(interaction) {
  const profileInfo = await dbProfile.profileInfo();
  const embed = new EmbedBuilder()
    .setColor(0x0099ff)
    .setTitle("user profile ")
    .setURL("https://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ")
    .setDescription(`ExarID: ${profileInfo}`);
  await interaction.reply({
    ephemeral: true,
    embeds: [embed],
    fetchReply: true,
  });
  return 0;
}

dbProfile.js

const db = require("./dbStart");
module.exports = {
  profileInfo: async function () {
    const users = await db.users();
    console.log(users);
    return users;
  },
};

dbStart.js

exports.users = function () {
  return new Promise((resolve) => {
    conn.query("SELECT ExarID FROM users", function (err, result, fields) {
      if (err) {
        console.log(err);
      }
      console.log(JSON.parse(result));
      resolve(result);
    });
  });
};