I'm using asynchronous functions with Promise in order to make use of Google Sheets API. Everything is working fine except for one thing: I'm not able to access the value returned by the API outside of 'then'. Inside then, 'content' is printing the right value. Here is the relevant part of the code:

var val = selectPayloadContent(serviceName)
  .then(content => console.log("Outputting content: ", content))
  .catch(error => console.log(error));

console.log("Outputting content outside: ", val);

val.then(function(result) {
  console.log("Val: ", result);
});

I realize this is a common issue and I've gone through a lot of questions and different articles. However, I can't seem to resolve this problem. Please note:

• 'val' in the console log is showing Promise {pending}.
  PromiseState is fulfilled and PromiseResult is undefined.
• 'result' in the console log is showing undefined

Any kind of help will be really appreciated. Thanks.