New Post: Store GetListItems in a global variable?

function lastupdate(R) {

var a = new Array(); // stores mod date values from associated tables
var d = new Date(); // holder for ea date

var myQuery = "<Query><Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='rfc_id' /><Value Type='Number'>"+R+"</Value></Eq></Where></Query>";

// get the schedule items
 $().SPServices({
    operation: "GetListItems",
    async: false,
    listName: "tbl_A",
    CAMLViewFields: "<ViewFields><FieldRef Name='Modified' /></ViewFields>",
	CAMLQuery: myQuery,
	completefunc: function (xData, Status) {
	$(xData.responseXML).find("[nodeName='z:row']").each(function() {
          var d = $(this).attr("ows_Modified");
          a.push(d);
          
      });
    }
  });  // out of SPServices

a.sort();
 
return a[a.length-1]; // last item in array of dates should be the latest.
}

Note, using pre-0.7.1 version of SPServices (.find not .SPfilternode, but will work with 0.7.1 and .SPfilternode).

This is a subset of the code... I use six GetListItems calls to collect the @Modified dates of all child records of a parent record, so I can display the overall last modified date.