Cannot access outside variables from the jquery get function

Question

I am trying to turn csv into associative array but the $.get function does not change the outside textData variable

function csvToArray(filename){

var textData;
var headers = new Array(),
    dataValues = new Array();

$.get(filename, function(data){
    textData = data;
});

var dataArray = textData.split('\n');
headers = dataArray[0].split(',');

for(var i = 1; i<dataArray.length; i++){
    var thisLine = dataArray[i].split(','),
        tempArray = new Array();

    for(var j = 0; j<thisLine.length; j++){
        tempArray[headers[j]] = thisLine[j];
    }

    dataValues.push(tempArray);
}

return dataValues;

}

Why is textData not being set?

Sushanth -- · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-11 17:49:59Z

5

get is Async

So by the time textData is set , the remaining statements are already executed.

So consider moving the statements after the get to inside the callback, wherein the textData is populated and then processing can be done on it.

answered Jul 11, 2013 at 17:49

Sushanth --

55.8k9 gold badges70 silver badges109 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Jordan Simon Over a year ago

can you set async to false or would just making it an ajax call with async:flase be better?

DaoWen Over a year ago

@JordanSimon - Using synchronous requests is a bad idea according to MDN: Note: You shouldn't use synchronous XMLHttpRequests because, due to the inherently asynchronous nature of networking, there are various ways memory and events can leak when using synchronous requests. (That's in the context of XMLHttpRequests, but the principle still applies since that's probably what jQuery uses under the hood.)

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Cannot access outside variables from the jquery get function

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related