NodeJS require with asynch functions when synch is wanted

Question

I have the following code

var utils = require(`${__dirname}/../../utils/utils.js`);
...
let object = utils.parse(input);
    if (object === undefined){
        let helper = utils.recognize(input);
        msg.channel.sendMessage("\"" + input + "\" not recognized. Did you mean \"" + helper[0] + "\"?");
        object = utils.parse(helper[0]);
    }
//code related to object
console.log(object.strLength);

where "parse" tries to match the input to an object in a database, and "recognize" tries to find the best match if the input is spelled incorrectly (Levenshtein) (along with additional info such as how close the match was).

Currently the issue is that the code is ran asynchronously; "object.strLength" returns an undefined before utils.recognize() returns a value. If I copy/paste the recognize() and parse() functions into the file, then the code is run synchronously and I do not run into any issues. However I would rather keep those functions in a separate file as I reuse them in other files.

Is there a way to specify that the functions in utils must be synch? I know that there are libraries that convert asynch into synch but I prefer to use as few libraries as I can help it. I tried to have the recognize functions return a Promise but it ended up as a jumbled mess

edit: here's parse. I did not think it was necessary to answer this question so I did not include it initially:

var db = require(`${__dirname}/../data/database.js`);
...
var parse = (input) => {
    let output = db[output];
    if (output === null) {
        Object.keys(db).forEach((item) => {
            if (db[item].num === parseInt(input) || (db[item].color + db[item].type === input)){
                output = db[item];
                return false;
            }
        });      
    }
    return output;
}

Answer 1

I solved the issue, thanks everyone. Here's what was wrong, it was with recognize(). It was my mistake to not show the code for it initially.

Original recognize:

var recognize = (item) => {

//iterate through our databases and get a best fit
let bestItem = null;
let bestScore = 99999; //arbitrary large number
//let bestType = null;

//found algorithm online by milot-mirdita
var levenshtein = function(a, b) {
    if (a.length == 0) { return b.length; } 
    if (b.length == 0) { return a.length; }

    // swap to save some memory O(min(a,b)) instead of O(a)
    if(a.length > b.length) {
        let tmp = a;
        a = b;
        b = tmp;
    }

    let row = [];
    for(let i = 0; i <= a.length; i++) {
        row[i] = i;
    }

    for (let i = 1; i <= b.length; i++) {
        let prev = i;
        for (let j = 1; j <= a.length; j++) {
            let val;
            if (b.charAt(i-1) == a.charAt(j-1)) {
                val = row[j-1]; // match
            } else {
                val = Math.min(row[j-1] + 1, // substitution
                        prev + 1,     // insertion
                        row[j] + 1);  // deletion
            }
            row[j - 1] = prev;
            prev = val;
        }
        row[a.length] = prev;
    }
    return row[a.length];
}   

//putting this here would make the code work
//console.log("hi");

Object.keys(db).forEach((key) => {
    if (levenshtein(item, key) < bestScore) {
        bestItem = key;
        bestScore = levenshtein(item, key);
    }
});

return [bestItem, bestScore];

}

My solution was to move the levenshtein function outside of the recognize function, so if I wanted to I can call levenshtein from another function

@user949300 and @Robert Moskal, I changed the forEach loop into a let...in loop. There is no functional difference (as far as I can tell) but the code does look cleaner.

@Thomas, I fixed the let output = db[output]; issue, oops.

Again, thanks for all of your help, I appreciate it. And happy New Year too