Question

I declared a global variable var idCategories= new Array(); in my file.js
I use it in this function

function test() {
    $.ajax({
        type: "GET",
        url: "http://my_site/api/categories?ws_key=" 
             + ws_key  
             + "&PHP_AUTH_USER=" + PHP_AUTH_USER,
        dataType: "xml",
        success: parseXml
    });
    function parseXml(xml) {
        var i = 0;
        $(xml).find("category").each(function () {
            idCategories[i] = $(this).attr('id');
            // length increments at each iteration
            alert("length=" + idCategories.length);                 
            i = i + 1;
        });
    }
    alert("length=" + idCategories.length); //returns 0
}

in the function parseXml(xml) the array length is well incremented but outside of this function length = 0! so that I can’t use the array idCategories in another function!

Answer 1

$.ajay is by default asynchronus function! That means thet when it starts to execute it does not block application flow. you’re alert statement executes before $.ajax success function. You have two solutions.

1. set asny parameter to false.

   $.ajax({
       type: "GET",
       async: false, 
   

   …

2. call alert in parseXml function.

I belive you’re best bet is async:false, but correct way of doing it would be to advance script execution after $.ajax call is finished (execute next step in parsexml function).