Using variable outside of ajax callback function

Question

What is the best to use global variables outside of a callback function?

    var icon; 
    $(function(){

      $.get(\'data.xml\', function(xml){

                 


        

Answer 1

It can help to visualize the code like this.

    var icon; 
    $(function(){
        $.get('data.xml', callback); // sends ajax request
        // next line happens immediately unless ajax request is set to synchronous
        console.log(icon); // logs undefined
    });
    function callback(xml){ // onsuccess callback happens
        icon = xml.documentElement.getElementsByTagName("icon");
        console.log(icon); // logs Array
    }

I removed the anonymous function and placed the callback after the console.log. Like others have pointed out the ajax callback happens asynchronously, while javascript continues to execute.