jquery ajax return: undefined

Question

I'm sure you know this problem, I'm still trying to solve it for few days. I've tried lots of stuff but no one worked:

Here is the code

function lobbyLeader() {
    $.ajax({
       data: {"id": 1, "request": "lobbyinfo", "method": "read"},
       url: 'api.php',
       dataType: 'json',
       success: function(data){
           result = data.leader;
           return result;
       }
   });
}

alert(result); will show 1 but when using in an other function it says undefined.

Answer 1

You can't return from an asynchronous function like this, you're returning from that success callback function, not the parent function. Instead, kick off whatever you need in the callback, like this:

function lobbyLeader() {
  $.ajax({
    data: {"id": 1, "request": "lobbyinfo", "method": "read"},
    url: 'api.php',
    dataType: 'json',
    success: function(data){
      someOtherFunc(data.leader);
   }
 });
}