Primarily python
In: Technology
In Monopoly, you pull the card that says “go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars.” You are instantly transported to another section of the gameboard and then follow the rules surrounding your transportation. You were “return”ed to jail.
return is how a function’s result is passed back to the caller.
Most programs are organized into functions (sometimes called procedures or subroutines). You might have the following command:
x = compute_average(list)
computer_average() might look like this:
int compute_average(List list)
total = 0
count = 0
for each item in list
total = total + item
count = count + 1
return total / count
In this case, return is saying “I’m all done, here is the average of the list you gave me.
When a function is called it’s pushed to the top of the call stack. The function does its work then when it hits a return statement it stores the return value in a special place, then the stack is popped and the parent function continues, with access to that special place the value is stored in.
It sends control of the program back to what called it and frees that memory space up. So when you call a function with a parameter, especially ones that are stored outside of your mainline, you need to return control back when you exit so that you can take advantage of the memory space
Latest Answers