outside of client's scope? about node-redis

[aeosynth]

That's what you have to do with async functions in general, not just redis. There's a whole crop of modules (search for Flow Control / Async Goodies) dedicated to making async easier.

[mranney]

Your second example should work though, but you are probably getting confused about the order in which things run. Check out this program:

var client = require("redis").createClient();

client.set("some key", "some val");
var data;
client.get("some key", function (err, res) {
    data = res;
    console.log("Inside callback, data is: " + data);
});
console.log("Outside callback, data is: " + data);

This will output:

Outside callback, data is: undefined
Inside callback, data is: some val

Note that the "Outside callback" ran first. Since client.get() is a potentially blocking operation, the callback is noted, and control passes immediately (as far as you are concerned) to the next line in your program.

Note also that client.set() and client.get() are both operations that complete asynchronously, but they are guaranteed to complete in order. So you know that the get will not invoke the callback until the set is complete.

[NHQ]

Ah-ha, thanks for that bit of tutorial.