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Why use the return statement?

Asked by

5 years ago

I was just reading up on things and I was looking into the return statement, and I understand for the most part what it does but I wanted to know in what cases this would be helpful?

Where would the return statement be applicable?

Return statements give functions a purpose. They help make functions useful. For example, lets say you make a function that can calculate a players position. Well, you want the position, so you would make the function return that. Basically, use return statements for functions that should have some kind of output. torchmaster101 92 — 5y

2 answers

Answered by

nikoviking 236

5 years ago

The return statement can be used to feed data from a different operation or function.

For example, dictionaries are made using hashmaps so they cannot be measured like normal arrays.

1local myDict = {["John"] = 17, ["Jane"] = 18}
2local myTab = {"John", "Jane"}
3 
4print(#myTab) -- prints the length of myTab, which is 2.
5 
6print(#myDict) -- returns an error, either 0 or nil.

In this case, to measure the length of the dictionary I'm going to use a function.

01function findLength(table)
02    local counter = 0
03    for i, v in pairs(Table) do
04        counter = counter + 1
05    end
06 
07    -- Now that the loop has finished, send the total
08    return counter
09end
10 
11print("My dictionary is "..findLength(myTab).." elements long.")
12-- This would print that the dictionary is 2 elements long

Below is a function that I have used in the past to determine the security level on a player's keycard shortly after spawning. I call assignClearance from within a function which writes on the side of a handheld tool.

01function assignClearance(player, groupId)
02    player:GetRankInGroup(groupId)
03 
04    if player:IsInGroup(GroupID) and (player:GetRankInGroup(GroupID) == 255) then
05        return 6
06    elseif player:IsInGroup(GroupID) and (player:GetRankInGroup(GroupID) >= 250) then
07        return 5
08    elseif player:IsInGroup(GroupID) and (player:GetRankInGroup(GroupID) >= 248) then
09        return 4
10    elseif player:IsInGroup(GroupID) and (player:GetRoleInGroup(GroupID) == "Under Investigation") then
11        return 0
12    elseif player:IsInGroup(GroupID) and (player:GetRankInGroup(GroupID) == 3) then
13        return 3
14    elseif player:IsInGroup(GroupID) and (player:GetRankInGroup(GroupID) == 2) then
15        return 2
16    elseif player:IsInGroup(GroupID) and (player:GetRankInGroup(GroupID) == 1) then
17        return 1
18    else
19        return 0
20    end
21 
22end
 View all 22 lines...

In short, the return statement helps you keep your code more robust and reusable as it often saves you from having to repeat blocks of code over again.

Thanks for showing it in practice too. EstrangedFisherman 51 — 5y

Answered by

SerpentineKing 3885

5 years ago

Below are a few examples of what to use it for:

Remote Functions can use the return statement to give information back to the side of the game which Invoked it.

Module Scripts require you to return the table created at the beginning of the script

Local Functions can return information you need or calculated to wherever they were called from

You can also use returns to break out of multiple loops at once

Why use the return statement?

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