If you mean updating scope, you can directly assign to scope from the success callback.
$http({
    url: "php/InsertTab.php",
        method: "POST",
        data: {
            'userId': userId,
        },
        headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}
        }).success(function(data, status, headers, config) {
        $scope.myVar = data;
        }).error(function(data, status, headers, config) {
    });
If you need to show a loading indicator or so, you can use the promise API, which provides a then(success, error) method, like that:
function MyCtrl($scope) {
    $scope.ajaxLoading = true;
    $scope.ajaxComplete = function() {
        $scope.ajaxLoading = false;
    };
    $http({
        url: "php/InsertTab.php",
            method: "POST",
            data: {
                'userId': userId,
            },
            headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}
            }).success(function(data, status, headers, config) {
            $scope.myVar = data;
            }).error(function(data, status, headers, config) {
        }).then($scope.ajaxComplete, $scope.ajaxComplete);
}
You can later make this generic using AJAX interceptors. See the AJAX documentation page:
https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/service/$http