Why estimateGas always returns null or zero

Question

Playing with web3, i am having some issue with the following.

Always returns null or Zero.

var gas = 0; 

const eth = new Eth(web3.currentProvider); 

const contract = new EthContract(eth); 

const myContract= contract(abi); 

var me = myContract.at(contractAddress); 

eth.estimateGas({

     from: eth.accounts[0], to: "0x0Fe18f369c7F34208922cAEBbd5d21E131E44692", 

     amount: web3.toWei(1, "ether")}, 

     function(d){ 

     var gas = web3.toBigNumber(gas).toString(); 

     console.log(gas);
     if(gas.toString() != "null")

     { gas = d; console.log("Gas: " + d); } });

Returns zero always.... or null? This is error with my code? or this transaction requires no gas ?? New and learning, thanks.

Answer 1

The Web3 API uses error first style callbacks.

Your call should look like this:

eth.estimateGas({
    from: eth.accounts[0], 
    to: "0x0Fe18f369c7F34208922cAEBbd5d21E131E44692", 
    value: web3.toWei(1, "ether")
  }, 
  function(e, d) {
    var gas = web3.toBigNumber(gas).toString();
    console.log(gas);

    if (gas.toString() != "null") {
      gas = d; 
      console.log("Gas: " + d);
    }
 });