Go Function Returns

Return Values

If you want the function to return a value, you need to define the data type of the return value (such as int, string, etc), and also use the return keyword inside the function:

Syntax

func FunctionName(param1 type, param2 type) type {
  // code to be executed
  return output
}

---

Function Return Example

Example

Here, myFunction() receives two integers (x and y) and returns their addition (x + y) as integer (int):

package main
import ("fmt")

func myFunction(x int, y int) int {
  return x + y
}

func main() {
  fmt.Println(myFunction(1, 2))
}

Result:

3


---

Named Return Values

In Go, you can name the return values of a function.

Example

Here, we name the return value as result (of type int), and return the value with a naked return (means that we use the return statement without specifying the variable name):

package main
import ("fmt")

func myFunction(x int, y int) (result int) {
  result = x + y
  return
}

func main() {
  fmt.Println(myFunction(1, 2))
}

Result:

3


The example above can also be written like this. Here, the return statement specifies the variable name:

Example

package main
import ("fmt")

func myFunction(x int, y int) (result int) {
  result = x + y
  return result
}

func main() {
  fmt.Println(myFunction(1, 2))
}

---

Store the Return Value in a Variable

You can also store the return value in a variable, like this:

Example

Here, we store the return value in a variable called total:

package main
import ("fmt")

func myFunction(x int, y int) (result int) {
  result = x + y
  return
}

func main() {
  total := myFunction(1, 2)
  fmt.Println(total)
}

---

Multiple Return Values

Go functions can also return multiple values.

Example

Here, myFunction() returns one integer (result) and one string (txt1):

package main
import ("fmt")

func myFunction(x int, y string) (result int, txt1 string) {
  result = x + x
  txt1 = y + " World!"
  return
}

func main() {
  fmt.Println(myFunction(5, "Hello"))
}

Result:

10 Hello World!


Example

Here, we store the two return values into two variables (a and b):

package main
import ("fmt")

func myFunction(x int, y string) (result int, txt1 string) {
  result = x + x
  txt1 = y + " World!"
  return
}

func main() {
  a, b := myFunction(5, "Hello")
  fmt.Println(a, b)
}

Result:

10 Hello World!


If we (for some reason) do not want to use some of the returned values, we can add an underscore (_), to omit this value.

Example

Here, we want to omit the first returned value (result - which is stored in variable a):

package main
import ("fmt")

func myFunction(x int, y string) (result int, txt1 string) {
  result = x + x
  txt1 = y + " Santosh!"
  return
}

func main() {
   _, b := myFunction(5, "Hello")
  fmt.Println(b)
}

Result:

Hello Santosh!


Example

Here, we want to omit the second returned value (txt1 - which is stored in variable b):

package main
import ("fmt")

func myFunction(x int, y string) (result int, txt1 string) {
  result = x + x
  txt1 = y + " World!"
  return
}

func main() {
   a, _ := myFunction(5, "Hello")
  fmt.Println(a)
}

Result:

10