retrieving lat/long of location using google.maps.geocoder

The problem you're facing is that you're treating the geocoder.geocode function as immediately completing before you do the return result. What's really happening is that the geocoder.geocode is triggered, then you get an immediate return of result. Because the asynchronous result has most likely not returned, your result is empty. Think of the geocoding result as a push, not a pull. The storeResult function, not shown, is whatever code you need to do to save the information. Because you're combining a result with an error string, you have to handle that in your storeResult function. As an alternative, you can have a status in the result that indicates succcess or failure.

function getLatLong(address) {
var geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
var result = "";
geocoder.geocode( { 'address': address, 'region': 'uk' }, function(results, status) {
     if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) {
         result[lat] = results[0].geometry.location.Pa;
         result[lng] = results[0].geometry.location.Qa;
     } else {
         result = "Unable to find address: " + status;
     }
     storeResult(result);
    });
}

This is not the answer but don't use Pa and Qa always use the lng() and lat() functions:

 place.geometry.location
{...}
    Pa: 56.240477
    Qa: -0.902655999999979
    toString: function(){return"("+this.lat()+", "+this.lng()+")"}
    equals: function(a){return!a?k:Cd(this.lat(),a.lat())&&Cd(this.lng(),a.lng())}
    lat: function(){return this[a]}
    lng: function(){return this[a]}
    toUrlValue: function(a){a=Hd(a)?a:6;return $d(this.lat(),a)+","+$d(this.lng(),a)}

I struggled hard with this and found the following to work.

1. Loop through the object and push into a new array:

   var newArray = [];
   
   for (var key in latLng) {
   
      newArray.push(key);
   
   }
   

2. Call your object with variable values with the square bracket syntax, dot notation breaks:

   var lat = latLng[newArray[0]];
   
   var lng = latLng[newArray[1]];