The return statement is used to send a value to the calling function.
Explanation
- Function Termination and Control: When a
returnstatement is encountered within a function, the function's execution is immediately terminated. Control is then transferred back to the point in the calling function where the function was invoked. - Value Transmission: The
returnstatement can optionally include an expression or value to be sent back to the calling function. This value is referred to as the return value. - Purpose: The
returnstatement is crucial for functions to communicate the results of their computations or tasks back to the main program flow, allowing for modular and reusable code. For example, a function that calculates the area of a rectangle would use areturnstatement to send the calculated area back to the code that called it.
Key points
- Syntax: The basic syntax for a return statement is
return expression;orreturn value;. - Optional Value: A function doesn't necessarily need to return a value. If no value is specified after the
returnkeyword, the function still terminates and control returns to the caller, but the return value is undefined orNonein some languages like Python. - Multiple Return Statements: A function can have multiple return statements, typically within conditional blocks, allowing different values to be returned based on specific conditions.
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