[jQuery] Variable Scope Help

[WhoButSB]

Hello All,

I'm running into some issues where I'm alittle confused about the
scope of my variables.

I have this code:

$(function(){

var categoryID;

         //Aloha Item Category Dropdown Selection
        //Takes the Selected Value and adds it to Item Search Ending
        $("#add-item select[name='CategoryId']").change(function(){
                categoryID = $("#add-item select[name='CategoryId'] 
:selected").val
();
                return categoryID;
        });

//Item Search for food name
        $("#add-item #ITEMNAME").autocomplete("<?= site_url('aloha/
item_search'); ?>/"+categoryID, {
                selectFirst: false,
                formatItem: formatItem,
                formatResult: formatResult
        }).result(function(row, item, data) {
                $('#add-item #ITEMNAME').val(item[0]);
                $('#add-item #ITEMID').val(item[1]);
        });
}



What I'm trying to do is take a selection value from a drop down menu
and append the value to the end of the URL in the auocomplete plugin.
For some reason I'am not able to get this to work.  Whenever I view
the AJAX request it says that the value is undefined.  But if I put a
console.log() into where I select the value it comes up correctly.  I
believe its the way i'm defining the vairables scope.  THank you for
the help!