Asp Forum - return statement

Derek Derek

2/19/2007 12:45:00 PM

i've been getting confused about what exactly the return statement
does...

i really think this book i'm reading "learn to program" is really not
that great of a book to be reading when getting into programming. While
the author covers somethings very much in depth, he barely touches some
things for more than a line, and sometimes not at all, and then you end
up finding it in his code.

Along with that confusion on the return function.. i was code tracing
the code below and i understand it, except for one part, i just don't
see where the code tells the program to print out the numString. I see
it telling the program to in the 'one hundred' section, but not at all
in the teens or single digits?

i read these forums everyday, and i really don't understand that much of
the advanced stuff you guys talk about, but everyday i do begin to
understand more and more little parts, i just hope i'm not being a pain
in the arse. I guess it's just a little hard learning from a book and
having no teacher to learn from.. if you guys are getting annoyed, just
let me know. thank you again in advance.

def englishNumber number
# We only want numbers from 0-100.
if number < 0
return 'Please enter a number zero or greater.'
end
if number > 100
return 'Please enter a number 100 or lesser.'
end

numString = '' # This is the string we will return.

# "left" is how much of the number we still have left to write out.
# "write" is the part we are writing out right now.
# write and left... get it? :)
left = number
write = left/100 # How many hundreds left to write out?
left = left - write*100 # Subtract off those hundreds.

if write > 0
return 'one hundred'
end

write = left/10 # How many tens left to write out?
left = left - write*10 # Subtract off those tens.

if write > 0
if write == 1 # Uh-oh...
# Since we can't write "tenty-two" instead of "twelve",
# we have to make a special exception for these.
if left == 0
numString = numString + 'ten'
elsif left == 1
numString = numString + 'eleven'
elsif left == 2
numString = numString + 'twelve'
elsif left == 3
numString = numString + 'thirteen'
elsif left == 4
numString = numString + 'fourteen'
elsif left == 5
numString = numString + 'fifteen'
elsif left == 6
numString = numString + 'sixteen'
elsif left == 7
numString = numString + 'seventeen'
elsif left == 8
numString = numString + 'eighteen'
elsif left == 9
numString = numString + 'nineteen'
end
# Since we took care of the digit in the ones place already,
# we have nothing left to write.
left = 0
elsif write == 2
numString = numString + 'twenty'
elsif write == 3
numString = numString + 'thirty'
elsif write == 4
numString = numString + 'forty'
elsif write == 5
numString = numString + 'fifty'
elsif write == 6
numString = numString + 'sixty'
elsif write == 7
numString = numString + 'seventy'
elsif write == 8
numString = numString + 'eighty'
elsif write == 9
numString = numString + 'ninety'
end

if left > 0
numString = numString + '-'
end
end

write = left # How many ones left to write out?
left = 0 # Subtract off those ones.

if write > 0
if write == 1
numString = numString + 'one'
elsif write == 2
numString = numString + 'two'
elsif write == 3
numString = numString + 'three'
elsif write == 4
numString = numString + 'four'
elsif write == 5
numString = numString + 'five'
elsif write == 6
numString = numString + 'six'
elsif write == 7
numString = numString + 'seven'
elsif write == 8
numString = numString + 'eight'
elsif write == 9
numString = numString + 'nine'
end
end

if numString == ''
# The only way "numString" could be empty is if
# "number" is 0.
return 'zero'
end

# If we got this far, then we had a number somewhere
# in between 0 and 100, so we need to return "numString".
numString
end

puts englishNumber( 0)
puts englishNumber( 9)
puts englishNumber( 10)
puts englishNumber( 11)
puts englishNumber( 17)
puts englishNumber( 32)
puts englishNumber( 88)
puts englishNumber( 99)
puts englishNumber(100)

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....

15 Answers

Xavier Noria

2/19/2007 1:03:00 PM

On Feb 19, 2007, at 1:44 PM, Derek Teixeira wrote:

> i've been getting confused about what exactly the return statement
> does...

Return means "we are done".

Sometimes when you write a method (I don't know the jargon used in
that book, it may be function, or subroutine, or procedure, ...) you
know somewhere in the middle that _if the code reached that point_ we
do not need to do anything else. For instance, see this method that
says where the given number is positive:

def is_positive?(n)
if n > 0
return true
end
return false
end

That method can be written in different ways, but to depict the
meaning of return: if n is greater than 0, you already know the
answer, so in that point you indicate there's no need to execute more
code, you're ready to give the answer: true. If the execution reaches
that point, the following executable line "return false" will be
ignored altogether, execution is halted.

Return in addition accepts a value to be returned (true/false in the
example), which is considered to be the _result_ of that method call
in such case.

> Along with that confusion on the return function.. i was code tracing
> the code below and i understand it, except for one part, i just don't
> see where the code tells the program to print out the numString. I see
> it telling the program to in the 'one hundred' section, but not at all
> in the teens or single digits?

> def englishNumber number

<snip>

> end

The purpose of that method is to compute and return a _string_, not
to actually _print_ that string.

> puts englishNumber( 0)

Now here you have two calls: first a call to englishNumber( 0), and
then a call to puts. They are executed in that order, and the string
returned by the first call is chained into the second call, so puts
is the one that prints the string.

Does that help? Please do no hesitate to send more questions.

-- fxn

David Vallner

2/19/2007 1:21:00 PM

Making a wild guess at the signal in the noise.

On Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:44:46 +0100, Derek Teixeira
<derek.teixeira@gmail.com> wrote:
> Along with that confusion on the return function.. i was code tracing
> the code below and i understand it, except for one part, i just don't
> see where the code tells the program to print out the numString. I see
> it telling the program to in the 'one hundred' section, but not at all
> in the teens or single digits?
>
> [snip self-depreciation - just keep that one out next time ;P]
>
> def englishNumber number
> ## [snip unrelated code]
>
> # If we got this far, then we had a number somewhere
> # in between 0 and 100, so we need to return "numString".
> numString ## equivalent to "return numString"
> end
>

In Ruby, a function always returns the value of the last expression in its
definition by default if it reaches the end.

(I really, really, really hate on relying on this behaviour because it
makes it easy to miss the fact that this is happening instead of just a
"void" method call, or to miss that the method is in fact returning
anything at all, and it really doesn't belong in a beginners' book. Tut.
Oversight maybe?)

David Vallner

dblack

2/19/2007 1:43:00 PM

Derek Derek

2/19/2007 1:48:00 PM

> Return means "we are done".
>
> Sometimes when you write a method (I don't know the jargon used in
> that book, it may be function, or subroutine, or procedure, ...) you
> know somewhere in the middle that _if the code reached that point_ we
> do not need to do anything else. For instance, see this method that
> says where the given number is positive:
>
> def is_positive?(n)
> if n > 0
> return true
> end
> return false
> end
>
> That method can be written in different ways, but to depict the
> meaning of return: if n is greater than 0, you already know the
> answer, so in that point you indicate there's no need to execute more
> code, you're ready to give the answer: true. If the execution reaches
> that point, the following executable line "return false" will be
> ignored altogether, execution is halted.
>
> Return in addition accepts a value to be returned (true/false in the
> example), which is considered to be the _result_ of that method call
> in such case.

So you are saying that it basically saves the confusion of elsif's and
it just makes more sense.. in your example you could have easily written

def is_positive?(n)
if n > 0
answer= true
elsif
n<0
answer= false
end

Right? but that just looks sloppy and could really get confusing if i
had more lines of code.. am i getting it right?

>> def englishNumber number
>
> <snip>
>
>> end
>
> The purpose of that method is to compute and return a _string_, not
> to actually _print_ that string.
>
>> puts englishNumber( 0)
>
> Now here you have two calls: first a call to englishNumber( 0), and
> then a call to puts. They are executed in that order, and the string
> returned by the first call is chained into the second call, so puts
> is the one that prints the string.

so basically when you define a method you are saying that when i call
this method, i want this done with the thing next to it. So here it is
saying i want you to run all these checks on the number next to
"englishNumber"? then it runs each of those tests .. the if statements
and once one is true to that statement, then it stops there and prints
out the last line before end?

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....

SonOfLilit

2/19/2007 1:49:00 PM

On 2/19/07, Derek Teixeira <derek.teixeira@gmail.com> wrote:

> I guess it's just a little hard learning from a book and having no teacher to learn from..

Hi Derek,

That is exactly why I started the RubyMentor project last week, which
you can find a thread about in this list titled "adopt-a-newbie".

Please read it, it's exactly for you!

David Vallner

2/19/2007 1:58:00 PM

On Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:43:07 +0100, <dblack@wobblini.net> wrote:

> Hi --
>
> No; Chris knows what he's doing. It's pretty fundamental -- I always
> make a point of explaining it when I introduce the topic of methods to
> beginners. Otherwise simple things like:
>
> def of_age?
> age > 17
> end
>
> make no sense. It's basically just a function that performs a
> calculation.
>

For mathemathical functions with a simple enough control flow, I'm
ambivalent on the topic. However once a method has a premature return (or
four) somewhere, the inconsistency hurts my sensitivities. Using the
keyword in such a method as a matter of style gives me one less thing to
keep in my head when scanning the code for exit points - either there is
only one and it's completely obvious like in your example, or it's every
line with "return" in it.

David Vallner

dblack

2/19/2007 2:18:00 PM

dblack

2/19/2007 2:20:00 PM

Xavier Noria

2/19/2007 2:21:00 PM

On Feb 19, 2007, at 2:48 PM, Derek Teixeira wrote:

> So you are saying that it basically saves the confusion of
> elsif's and
> it just makes more sense.. in your example you could have easily
> written
>
> def is_positive?(n)
> if n > 0
> answer= true
> elsif
> n<0
> answer= false
> end
>
> Right? but that just looks sloppy and could really get confusing if i
> had more lines of code.. am i getting it right?

Right.

Now that you have the idea, there are some details that depend on the
programming language here. I expect that book to abstract them from
the reader so I won't mention them. Just let me add that return is
generally used to end the execution of a method and (normally) give
some result back. That can happen anywhere, it is not required to be
in the middle so to speak. Thus, this is valid:

def square(n)
s = n*n
return s
end

> so basically when you define a method you are saying that when i
> call
> this method, i want this done with the thing next to it. So here it is
> saying i want you to run all these checks on the number next to
> "englishNumber"? then it runs each of those tests .. the if statements
> and once one is true to that statement, then it stops there and prints
> out the last line before end?

When you call a method you say: "please, execute the code inside the
method definition with the values I pass and return some result".

In the example above, the method is "square" and it does a different
thing if you call "square(3)" or "square(5)" because you pass a
different number in the call, a "5" in the former, a "3" in the
latter. In each call, the value of the variable "n" is the one in the
call, and so the code is executed for that particular value of "n".
As if the method definition was a template where you substitute "n"
with some actual number in each call.

OK, the _result_ of the computation is returned to who issued the
call and its usage depends on the actual surrounding code. For
example, here

a = square(3)

you take the result of "square(3)", which is 9, and assign it to "a".
After that line "a" holds the number "9".

You can chain calls, that was the point in your original code:

b = square(square(3))

The result of "square(3)" becomes the value passed to the outer call
to "square", and so it receives "9". In consequence, "b" will hold "81".

Chained calls do not require chained methods to be equal, you chained
"englishNumber" and "puts" in your code.

-- fxn

Xavier Noria

2/19/2007 2:24:00 PM

On Feb 19, 2007, at 3:20 PM, dblack@wobblini.net wrote:

> Well, in that particular case, I would just do:
>
> def is_positive?(n)
> n > 0
> end
>
> You definitely don't need the temporary variable (answer), and in fact
> you don't need to code the true/false return values because > will
> already give you one or the other.

Yes David, as I said in the message that method can be wrriten in
different ways, and its purpose was just to serve as support to
depict what return does.

-- fxn

comp.lang.ruby

return statement

Derek Derek

Xavier Noria

David Vallner

dblack

Derek Derek

SonOfLilit

David Vallner

dblack

dblack

Xavier Noria

Xavier Noria

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