Question

I’m trying to return the variable coord from GetLocation, but it only returns undefined.
Any help appreciated!

var coord = "";
function GetLocation(address) {

    var geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();

    geocoder.geocode( { "address": address }, function (results, status) {

        if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
            coord = ParseLocation(results[0].geometry.location);

            // This alert shows the proper coordinates 
            alert(coord);
        }
        else{ }

    });

    // this alert is undefined
    alert(coord);
    return coord;
}

function ParseLocation(location) {

    var lat = location.lat().toString().substr(0, 12);
    var lng = location.lng().toString().substr(0, 12);

    return lat+","+lng;
}

Answer 1

When you are returning coords from the outer function it is still in fact undefined. The inner function executes later when the asynchronous operation (if it wasn’t asynchronous, the API would just give the result to you normally) is done.

Try passing a callback:

function GetLocation(address, cb) {

    var geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();

    geocoder.geocode( { "address": address }, function (results, status) {

        if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
            cb(ParseLocation(results[0].geometry.location));
        }
        else{ }

    });
}

You can then use it like so:

GetLocation( "asd", function(coord){
    alert(coord);
});