toUpperCaseFunction does not work with await keyword

I was trying to use an if clause like this:

if(await database.getValue("SDA").toUpperCase() == "AP"){
   ...

I got an error:

TypeError: database.getValue(…).toUpperCase is not a function

However when I change the above if clause to

let check = await database.getValue("SDA")
if(check.toUpperCase() == "AP"){
  .....

It works fine.

Why does this happen in Nodejs?

Answer

Property access (.) has higher operator precedence (20) than await (17). Your current code is equivalent to:

if(await (database.getValue("SDA").toUpperCase()) == "AP"){

because the .s get chained together before the await tries to resolve the expression on the right – which doesn’t work because the getValue call returns the Promise.

You could also fix it by grouping the await getValue call in parentheses:

if((await database.getValue("SDA")).toUpperCase() == "AP"){

Or by using a regular expression to get around the == operator precedence (see revision history, I wouldn’t recommend it, it’s very weird).

Personally, I’d prefer your original code of extracting it into a variable first, it’s a bit more readable