Cannot return items in a string array - ios

Question

I'm very new to Parse and Swift and I have this project I am working on and I am trying to create a search bar that displays all the items from the key "names" from my Parse database.
I have created this function that is supposed to take all the names and return them in a string array. But instead, the array never gets filled and all I get as a return is [].
class Offices {
var name: String
var phone: String
var location: String
init(name: String = "def_name", phone: String = "def_phone", location: String = "def_location") {
self.name = name
self.phone = phone
self.location = location
}
func retrieveName() -> [String] {
var models = [String]()
let queries = PFQuery(className: "Directory")
queries.findObjectsInBackground { (object, error) in
if let error = error {
// The query failed
print(error.localizedDescription)
} else if let object = object {
// The query succeeded with a matching result
for i in object{
models.append(i["name"] as? String ?? self.name)
}
} else {
// The query succeeded but no matching result was found
}
}
return models
}

Answer 1

findObjectsInBackground method is asynchronous. So you should change retrieveName function as below:
class Offices {
var name: String
var phone: String
var location: String
init(name: String = "def_name", phone: String = "def_phone", location: String = "def_location") {
self.name = name
self.phone = phone
self.location = location
// I call retrieveName here for example. You can call it where you want.
retrieveName() { (success, models) in
if success {
print(models)
} else {
print("unsuceess")
}
}
}
func retrieveName(completion: #escaping (_ success: Bool, _ models: [String]) -> Void) {
var models = [String]()
let queries = PFQuery(className: "Directory")
queries.findObjectsInBackground { (object, error) in
if let error = error {
// The query failed
print(error.localizedDescription)
completion(false, [])
} else if let object = object {
// The query succeeded with a matching result
for i in object{
models.append(i["name"] as? String ?? self.name)
}
completion(true, models)
} else {
completion(true, [])
// The query succeeded but no matching result was found
}
}
}
}