putting return to a function

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Salvatore Mazzarino
Salvatore Mazzarino on 13 Oct 2012
Commented: Nguyen on 26 Oct 2023
I have created a function "my_function" and into it I call another function called "another_function".
function my_function()
value = another_function(foo);
end
My question is: inside another_function(), do I need to put a line of code that says "return", or I may omit the return keyword and simply return automatically by finishing executing all lines of "another_function()"?

Answers (2)

Matt Fig
Matt Fig on 13 Oct 2012
Edited: Matt Fig on 13 Oct 2012
Salvatore, are you asking how to make the function return the value that will be assigned to 'value' inside my_function? In MATLAB, unlike some other languages, there is no need to tell the function which value to return to the caller by a special call to the return keyword. For example, put this in your local directory:
function out = mysquarefcn(in)
out = in.*in;
Once you save that as mysquarefcn.m, the from the command line call it like this:
>> mysquarefcn(3)
>> G = mysquarefcn(3)

Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 13 Oct 2012
You can put returns wherever necessary in the function. At the end of the function it is optional (not necessary) but you can if you want
  2 Comments
Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 20 Jul 2021
@Brianna Biondo, for example, in the file my_function.m you would have all these lines of code:
function my_function()
% Assign some input value that we will pass to another_function().
foo = 37.4;
% Pass the input value to another_function().
value = another_function(foo);
% Now print its value to the command window.
fprintf('After calling "another_function(%f)", we get value = %f.\n', foo, value);
end
% Now declare another function below the main function that has the name of the script.
% This function can be below the main my_function function in the same m-file,
% OR in a different m-file called "another_function.m".
function outputValue = another_function(inputValue)
outputValue = 10 * inputValue;
return; % This line is completely optional.
end
Nguyen
Nguyen on 26 Oct 2023
thank you!!

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