Assign getCurrentAttribute to a variable

I am new to this...
I need to assign "myAlert" to equal getCurrentAttribute('item','salesPriceHTML)

(this on errors)
var myAlert = getCurrentAttribute('item',salesPriceHTML);


I keep running into errors in IE

Below is the code I am putting it into.

<td>
<table>
    <tr>
     <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
  var myAlert = INSERT getCurrentAttribute HERE
  alert(myAlert);
     </SCRIPT>
        <td rowspan="2" style="width: 200px" "height: 300px" id="cfh_img"><%=getCurrentAttribute('item','storedisplaythumbnailhtml')%></td>
        <td style="width: 540px; height: 70px; text-align: center;">
            <span style="font-size: 14pt"><strong id="cfh_title"><%=getCurrentAttribute('item','storedisplayname')%></strong></span></td>