Access json data outside of $.getJSON()

$(document).ready(function () {
    var value = getParmsVals()["search"];
    $.getJSON('/api/search/GetQuestionByKey/' + value, function (jsonData) {
        $(jsonData).each(function (i, item) {
            var name = getAuthorName(item.userId);
        });
    });
});

function getAuthorName(userId) {
    var fullname = "default";
    $.getJSON('/api/search/GetUserById/' + userId, function (jsonData) {
        fullname = jsonData.firstname + " " + jsonData.lastname;
    });
    return fullname;
}

I’m trying to access the fullname variable by calling the getAuthorName method but I couldn’t get the correct value. It’s always giving me the value “default”.

Answers:

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Method 1

You wouldn’t return from an async method, as you can see, it doesn’t work! What you need is a callback function, consider:

function getAuthorName(userId, callback) {
    var fullname = "default";
    $.getJSON('/api/search/GetUserById/' + userId, function (jsonData) {
        fullname = jsonData.firstname + " " + jsonData.lastname;
        callback(fullname);
    });
}

Notice how we pass in callback and then call it at the end of your get call? Now call this method like so:

getAuthorName(userID, function(name) {
    console.log(name);
});

And now you have access to fullname in that callback function!

Method 2

I like the answer by @tymeJV it is an easy solve to the problem

I just wanted to point out that solving the big picture of having easily accessible data inside Javascript is a great reason why data-centric JS frameworks exist

http://knockoutjs.com/
http://backbonejs.org/
http://angularjs.org/

Method 3

You can also put your variable on the object and use .bind(), like so:

this.fullname = "default";

$.getJSON('/api/search/GetUserById/' + userId, function (jsonData) {
   this.fullname = jsonData.firstname + " " + jsonData.lastname;
}.bind(this));

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0