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)
}
Try it Yourself »
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 + " World!"
return
}
func main() {
_, b := myFunction(5, "Hello")
fmt.Println(b)
}
Result:
Hello World!
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
