How do I set the sucessful results of a jQuery ajax function equal to a variable?

How do I set the sucessful results of a jQuery ajax function equal to a variable?

  1. var categories = $.ajax ({
                                type: 'post',
                                url : 'http://dev.touchstorm.com/ten_hpn_admin/index.php/manage_user/get_channels',
                    
                                success: function(results) {
                        
                                    categories = results;
                    
                                } // end success
                            }); // end ajax








Here is the code I wrote on friday. I was wondering if I could get anyone to help me out with this. Additionally, I don't want any other jQuery that comes after this to be executed until after this ajax request has been completed successfully.