Question

when i call this function I am not getting a return value to use in my other function that called it. I know this request works as I can use alert() and see the value is there. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

function GetRepName(InputStr1){
  var name = '';
  $.post("getrepname.php", {queryString: ""+InputStr1+""}, function(data){
    if(data.length >0) {
      $('#Results'+InputStr1).html(data);
      name = data;
    }
  });
  return name;
}

The posts I have read so far suggest having the variable defined in the outer function and then returned but this doesn’t seem to be working. do I need to add some code that will wait for the value to be returned before issuing the return statement?

Answer 1

The thing is that the $.post callback is called asynchronously, i.e. after the function has returned. You could make the AJAX call synchronously, but this isn’t recommended. You are better off re-designing your code taking into account the asynchronous nature of requests.