jQuery javascript scoping problem

Question

I have a hidden input element that I am using as a counter to use to name more input elements generated by JavaScript. To get the value of the counter i use

parseInt($('#counter').val());

However I use this code snippet several times in my code, so I thought it would be good to put it in a function

function getCounter(){
   parseInt($('#counter').val());
}

this always returns undefined, while running just the code snippet returns the correct value. This happens in several ways that I tried defeining the function, as a function inside a $(function(){}), as a global function etc. How do I fix the scoping?

Answer 1

Add "return" to your return statement :)

function getCounter(){
   return parseInt($('#counter').val());
}

Answer 2

How about adding a return

function getCounter(){
   return parseInt($('#counter').val());
}