Looping through files for FileReader, output always contains last value from loop
The problem is you're running the loop now but the callbacks you are setting are getting run later (when the events fire). By the time they run, the loop is over and remains at whatever the last value was. So it will always show "file2" in your case for the name.
The solution is to put the file name inside a closure with the rest. One way to do this is create an immediately-invoked function expression (IIFE) and pass the file in as a parameter to that function:
for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { //for multiple files
(function(file) {
var name = file.name;
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function(e) {
// get file content
var text = e.target.result;
var li = document.createElement("li");
li.innerHTML = name + "____" + text;
ul.appendChild(li);
}
reader.readAsText(file, "UTF-8");
})(files[i]);
}
Alternately, you can define a named function and call it as normal:
function setupReader(file) {
var name = file.name;
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function(e) {
// get file content
var text = e.target.result;
var li = document.createElement("li");
li.innerHTML = name + "____" + text;
ul.appendChild(li);
}
reader.readAsText(file, "UTF-8");
}
for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) {
setupReader(files[i]);
}
Edit: Just use let
instead of var
in the loop. That fixes the issue OP had (but was only introduced in 2015).
Old answer (An interesting workaround):
While it is not exactly robust or future-proof, it is worth mentioning that this can also be achieved by adding a property to the FileReader
object:
var reader = new FileReader();
reader._NAME = files[i].name; // create _NAME property that contains filename.
Then access it through e
within the onload
callback function:
li.innerHTML = e.target._NAME + "____" + text;
Why this works:
Even though the reader
variable is replaced multiple times during the loop like i
, the new FileReader
object is unique and remains in memory. It is accessible within the reader.onload
function through the e
argument. By storing additional data in the reader
object, it is kept in memory and accessible through reader.onload
via e.target
event argument.
This explains why why your output is:
file2__content1
file2__content2
and not:
file1__content1
file2__content2
The content is displayed correctly because e.target.result
is a property within the FileReader
object itself. Had FileReader
contained a filename property by default, it could have been used and this whole mess avoided entirely.
A word of caution
This is called extending host objects (if I understand the difference between native objects...). FileReader
is the host object that is being extended in this situation. Many professional developers believe doing this is bad practice and/or evil. Collisions may occur if _NAME
ever becomes used in the future. This functionality isn't documented in any specification so it could even break in the future, and it may not work in older browsers.
Personally, I have not encountered any issues by adding additional properties to host objects. Assuming the property name is unique enough, browsers don't disable it, and future browsers don't change these objects too much, it should work fine.
Here are some articles that explain this quite well:
http://kendsnyder.com/extending-host-objects-evil-extending-native-objects-not-evil-but-risky/
http://perfectionkills.com/whats-wrong-with-extending-the-dom/
And some article on the problem itself:
http://tobyho.com/2011/11/02/callbacks-in-loops/
Instead of using var, use let as the declared variable only be used in one loop.
for (let i = 0; i < files.length; i++) //for multiple files
{
let f = files[i];
let name = files[i].name;
alert(name);
let reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function(e) {
// get file content
let text = e.target.result;
let li = document.createElement("li");
li.innerHTML = name + "____" + text;
ul.appendChild(li);
}
reader.readAsText(f,"UTF-8");
}