Function does not return the JSON result when invoked

I am new to node.js and I wrote a code that invokes an API (GET) which returns a JSON array of documents. The GET works fine, the problem is that I can access the results inside the function but not from outside. The first alert inside the function display the JSON content fine, but I get an undefined value on the second alert.(result) which is outside the function. This is my piece of code:

function getNames(){
      $.get("./api/myapi")
          .done(function(data) {
              if(data.length > 0) {
                $('#databaseNames').html("Database contents: " + JSON.stringify(data));
                var mylist2 = JSON.stringify(data);
                alert (mylist2);  // This alert is fine
                return (mylist2);

              }
          });
      }

  var result = getNames() ;
  alert (result);   // Here I get "undefined".

via Leonardo Vidal