[swift-evolution] [proposal] default returns

[Eduardo Mourey Lopez Ne]

in proposal2:

If the function reaches a return instruction with a constant or a different variable, then it will return that value

example:
func myComplexOperation -> result:Int {
	result = 0;
	var a = 10;

	return 4;	//this is ok
	return a;	 //this is ok, result will be replaced with the value of a
	return result;	 //this is ok, only one line is needed
	return; //fail, without argument its not valid
	return default; //this could also work (proposal1)
}

> On May 10, 2016, at 7:33 PM, Leonardo Pessoa via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> This feels a little bit like back when I began studying Pascal where every function has an implicit Result variable to which we were to set the return value. I'm not particularly against Pascal or this syntax but it may lead to programmers scratching their heads to find out where a certain value is being defined to be returned from a function.
> 
> Additionally I'm not very fond of a language having two different syntaxes for returning a value. What should happen if, using the second proposal, the function reaches a return instruction with a constant or different variable? In my understanding it should be an error since I have already declared a variable for returning. It would also demand us to use two lines to return a different (error?) value from a function (result = 1; return;)
> 
>> On 10 May 2016, at 9:11 pm, Eduardo Mourey Lopez Ne via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>> 
>> This proposal consists in adding a functionally that I find useful in VB .net, that lets you set a default return value of a function at the begging rather than at the end
>> 
>> current:
>> func myComplexOperation() -> Int {    
>>   //Some long complex code that might return some value
>>      //Default return at the very end
>>      return 0
>> }
>> 
>> proposal:
>> func myComplexOperation() -> Int {
>>   //set the default return at the begging using the ‘default’ keyword or some other keyword
>>   default 0
>>   //Some long complex code that might return a value
>>   //if the end of the function is reached, return the default
>> }
>> 
>> The other alternative will be to allow naming the return value
>> proposal2:
>> func myComplexOperation() -> result:Int {
>>       //set the default return at the begging using the output variable name
>>   result = 0
>>   //Some long complex code that might return some value
>> }
>> 
>> Another alternative will be to set the default value directly like and optional parameter
>> proposal3:
>> func myComplexOperation() -> Int = 0 {
>>   //Some long complex code that might return some value
>> }
>> 
>> In all of the cases the compiler will check that a default return is set before exiting the function
>> It could be some combination of the 3 proposals
>> 
>> Thanks
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>> swift-evolution at swift.org
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