DEV Community

Cover image for the return statement in functions
Aswin Barath
Aswin Barath

Posted on • Updated on

the return statement in functions

Let me start with a fact: Every function returns a value when called.

Well, I don't know about you, but I was surprised to know about it in the first place!

Let's see an example to prove my point:
Alt Text

Output:

Welcome to my blog post
None
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Did you see that?
When I called the function, it has returned the special type None.
The variable post stores it and prints it out in the second line.

Now, we can explicitly return a value from a function by using the return keyword.

return statement

  • The return statement includes a return keyword followed by an expression.
  • An expression is a set of conditions which produces a value.
  • So, the return statement can contain an expression or an explicit value to be returned.
  • A return statement also ends the function execution. This means that any statements inside a function following the return statement will not be executed.
  • Take a note that return statement cannot be used outside a function.

Let's code a few examples:

1) Single return statement

Alt Text
Output:

21
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

As you can see in this example, we have given an expression which returns the product of given two numbers.

2) Multiple return statements

Alt Text
Output:

21
3.14
Try again!
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Here, an explicit value is specified in multiple return statements.

3) return statement with multiple values

Alt Text
Output:

(21, 63, 210)
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

This example returns dynamic values in a tuple based on the given argument.

Best Resources

Who Am I?

I’m Aswin Barath, a Software Engineering Nerd who loves building Web Applications, now sharing my knowledge through Blogging during the busy time of my freelancing work life. Here’s the link to all of my socials categorized by platforms under one place: https://linktr.ee/AswinBarath

Thank you so much for reading my blog🙂.

Top comments (0)