Returning a Future using a Completer

Future<Results> costlyQuery() {
  var completer = new Completer();

  database.query("SELECT * FROM giant_table", (results) {
    // when complete
    completer.complete(results);
  }, (error) {
    completer.completeException(error);
  });

  // this returns essentially immediately,
  // before query is finished
  return completer.future; 
}