Question

I have a function that takes a parameter(key) to retrieve it’s value from a cookie. I call that function anywhere that I need a specific bit of information. except everything comes back as Undefined.

//before $(document).ready();
var keyval = ""; //VARIABLE FOR PASSING COOKIE VALUE
var getCookieVal =function(c_name){
var cleanCookie = document.cookie.substr(0, document.cookie.indexOf("; __utma="));//REMOVES EXTRA INFORMATION
var cookieArr = cleanCookie.split(";");//MAKES AN ARRAY OF EACH PAIR
    $.each(cookieArr, function(index, val){
        var valArr = val.split("=");//SPLITS THE KEY VALUE PAIR INTO AN ARRAY
        var key = valArr[0];
        keyval = valArr[1];
        if (key == c_name){
            alert(keyval);//ALERTS CORRECT ANSWER
            return keyval;
        }
    });
    console.log(keyval);//RETURNS UNDEFINED
}

//IN ANOTHER FILE I CALL THE FUNCTION:
$(document).ready(function(){
    getCookieVal("username");
    alert(keyval);//RETURNS UNDEFINED
});

Anyone know what I did wrong or how I can get that value?

Answer 1

Here you go:

var getCookieVal = function(key) {
    var coo = document.cookie;
        arr = coo.substr(0, coo.indexOf('; __utma=')).split(';'),
        value;
    $.each(arr, function(i, v) {
        var valArr = v.split('=');
        if ( valArr[0] === key ) {
            value = vallArr[1];
            return false;
        }            
    });
    return value;
};

$(document).ready(function() {
    var keyval = getCookieVal('username');
    alert(keyval);
});

So you return false inside the if-branch (once you find the desired value) to break out of the $.each loop. Then, you just return value from the getCookieVal function.

Note that there is no need to define a global keyval variable here.