The $http.get() call is asynchronous and makes use of promise objects. So, based on the code you provided it seems most likely that you are outputting the $scope.database before the success method is run in the service.
I build all my service methods to pass in a success or failure function. This would be the service:
.factory('Database',function($http){
return {
getDatabase: function(onSuccuess,onFailure){
var database = {};
$http.get('http://localhost:3001/lookup').
success(onSuccess).
error(onFailure);
}
};
})
This would be the controller code:
angular.module('webClientApp')
.controller('MainCtrl', function (Database,Features,$scope,$http) {
$scope.databaseString = [];
$scope.quarters = ['Q1','Q2','Q3','Q4'];
$scope.years = ['2004','2005','2006','2007','2008','2009','2010',
'2011','2012','2013','2014'];
$scope.features = Features.getFeatures();
Database.getDatabase(successFunction,failureFunction);
successFunction = function(data){
$scope.database = data.info.companyInfo;
console.log($scope.database);
});
failureFunction = function(data){
console.log('Error' + data);
}