Question

trying to display data only after variables have been set.

$("document").ready(function () {
    function setdata() {
        var mydata = '123';
    };

    $.when(setdata()).done(function () {
        $(".content").text(mydata);
    });
});

Answer 1

You don’t need $.when in this case since you aren’t actually passing it a promise object.

$("document").ready(function () {
    var mydata;
    function setdata() {
        mydata = '123';
    };

    setdata();
    $(".content").text(mydata);
});

Is setdata doing more than what you are showing in your question? I’m guessing it does an ajax request, in which case it should look like this:

$("document").ready(function () {
    function setdata() {
        return $.ajax(ajaxOptions);
    };

    setdata().done(function(mydata){
        $(".content").text(mydata);
    });
});