Getting function returned value

Question

Suppose I have a function "func" which gets two arguments "a" and "b" and returns something. For some reason I can't manage echo what I get from the function.

This is what I tried:

value=$(func $a $b)
echo $value

user2404501 · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-22 01:20:09Z

3

Since you didn't show your function definition, this is only a guess, but I'm pretty confident it's a good one.

You need to understand that a function in shell fits into the language as if it was a command, i.e. a separate program, and the return keyword is analogous to exit. You can only return small integers, and the caller sees them in $?, just like the exit value of any other command.

Functions can also output a result to stdout by using echo (or any other command that prints to stdout), and then the result can be caputred with $(func args ...)

So you probably just need to change return to echo in your function.

answered Dec 22, 2013 at 1:20

user2404501

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

triple fault Over a year ago

My function returns using "return" statement, since I want to finish the function once it returns some value.

user2404501 Over a year ago

So change it to an echo followed by a return 0 if you want the function to be considered successful, or return 1 if you want it to fail. Just like writing an independent program - you do your output then exit. Except the "exit" from a shell function is spelled "return".

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Getting function returned value

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related