[jquery] assign function return value to some variable using javascript

Or just...

var response = (function() {
    var a;
    // calculate a
    return a;
})();  

In this case, the response variable receives the return value of the function. The function executes immediately.

You can use this construct if you want to populate a variable with a value that needs to be calculated. Note that all calculation happens inside the anonymous function, so you don't pollute the global namespace.