I use return on a subroutine

[vroom]

Always

 93/52%

Never

 14/8%

When I need it to break out of loop

 54/30%

Only when my boss makes me

 7/4%

What's a subroutine?

 12/7%

180 total votes

[Simplicus]

As an old C/C++ coder, I probably use it more as a reflex than anything else. But I almost always use returnSimplicus

[Adam]

Yeah. I tend to use it more often then I don't. It makes the code more readable if you explicitly state what you are returning. But if my routine only returns an error state or the return value is irrelevant then I don't use return. (Its not like Perl knows about void functions)

[Maclir]

As a matter of "good programming practice", I always state an explicit return, like "return 1;", or "return $status_code;" to make it easier for the programmers that will follow on from me. As well, when a subroutine is performing a task with a number of tests - say a data validation exercise - having a return after each failure avoids incredible messy code. Ken

[anders]

Since perl allways returns the value of the last expression, I usually just states $something if the sub's supposed to return some object.

For subs that prints stuff, I leave it to print() to decide.

If an error occurs, I use return 0 after setting an error value if possible.

[BBQ]

Interesting... I do it the other way around!

my $txt2print = MySub('This text')
  or warn('MySub said 0');

print $txt2print;

sub MySub {
  my $txt = shift;

  $txt = { do something here } 
    or return(0);

  return($txt);
}

or is that what you where saying all along?

[elwarren]

Sometimes I do this too. I guess it's just a matter of preference. Does anyone have a reason to use one or the other?

[iblech]

Usually, I don't use return for very small subs:

sub property { $_[0]->{property} }

I do use it for most larger subs.

[Jonathan]

I use goto instead ;-)