Returning values

[Anon]

Can someone explain what the return; command does, in simple terms.

I have checked the manual but it didn't help as all it has is an example not an explanation.

thanks

[cordex]

function dothis($var1)
{
$var1 .= "This function adds this sentance to var1 and returns it";
return($var1); // After going through the function, $var1 is sent back to the line that called it
}

$var1= "Var 1 starts out with this sentance. <BR>";
echo $var1;
$var1 = dothis($var1);
echo $var1;

Does that kind of explain it?

[Anon]

That could be a bit confusing since you used the same variable name throughout, maybe this will be clearer.

Return sends a variable back out of the function, so if you are expecting it you can capture it and do things with it.

function reverse_string($string) {
$words = explode(" ", $string);
$new_string = "";
for ($i = (count($words)-1); $i >+ 0; $i++) {
$new_string .= $words[$i] . " ";
}
$new_string .= subsrt($new_string, 0, (strlen($new_string) - 1));
return $new_string;
}

$my_var = "This is a Test";

$new_var = reverse_string($my_var);

echo $my_var; // outputs "This is a Test"
echo $new_var; // outputs "Test a is This"

[Anon]

I think I understand it. So it changes the variable $var1 value after the function call and returns the new value.