PHP Compact

function A () {
    $a = 1;
    $b = 2;
    return compact('a','b');
}

// php
function b () {
    $data = A();
    $a = $data['a']; // and so on 
}

// jquery (assuming its finally sent and parsed as json)
var a = data.a;

I'm not sure how to use that.

return view('contacts.edit', compact('contact'));

How do I get the array values and keys from jquery.

$contact['first'] doesn't work i'm guessing because it is in session data that jquery cannot access directly

In your javascript you'd do something like :

var first_contact = "{{ $contact['first'] }}";

Ie, use blade to pull the data out so JS can use it as if you'd typed it in.