BeSly Software Solutions About yab Demos About us Admin






Name:

return -- return from a subroutine or a gosub

Synopsis:
 
gosub foo 
... 
label foo 
... 
return 

sub bar(baz) 
  ... 
  return quertz 
end sub 

Description:
The return-statement serves two different (albeit somewhat related) purposes. The probably more important use of return is to return control from within a subroutine to the place in your program, where the subroutine has been called. If the subroutine is declared to return a value, the return-statement might be accompanied by a string or number, which constitutes the return value of the subroutine.
However, even if the subroutine should return a value, the return-statement need not carry a value; in that case the subroutine will return 0 or the empty string (depending on the type of the subroutine). Moreover, feel free to place multiple return-statements within your subroutine; it's a nice way of controlling the flow of execution.
The second (but historcially first) use of return is to return to the position, where a prior gosub has left off. In that case return may not carry a value.

Example:
do 
	read a$ 
	if (a$="") then 
		print 
	end 
	endif 
	print mark$(a$)," "
loop 

data "The","quick","brown","fox","jumped" 
data "over","the","lazy","dog","" 

sub mark$(a$) 
	if (instr(lower$(a$),"q")) return upper$(a$) 
	return a$ 
end sub 
Explanation:

This example features a subroutine mark$, that returns its argument in upper case, if it contains the letter "q", or unchanged otherwise. In the test-text the word quick will end up beeing marked as QUICK.
The example above demonstrates return within subroutines; please see gosub for an example of how to use return in this context.



Related: sub, gosub