Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!feeder.news-service.com!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!talisker.lacave.net!lacave.net!not-for-mail From: jake kaiden Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby Subject: Re: Understanding the return method Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2011 18:28:47 -0500 Organization: Service de news de lacave.net Lines: 29 Message-ID: References: <4aa6da7c8d4c99589c8a48a80c677218@ruby-forum.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: bristol.highgroove.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: talisker.lacave.net 1302996546 19626 65.111.164.187 (16 Apr 2011 23:29:06 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@lacave.net NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:29:06 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: <4aa6da7c8d4c99589c8a48a80c677218@ruby-forum.com> X-Received-From: This message has been automatically forwarded from the ruby-talk mailing list by a gateway at comp.lang.ruby. If it is SPAM, it did not originate at comp.lang.ruby. Please report the original sender, and not us. Thanks! For more details about this gateway, please visit: http://blog.grayproductions.net/categories/the_gateway X-Mail-Count: 381731 X-Ml-Name: ruby-talk X-Rubymirror: Yes X-Ruby-Talk: Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.ruby:3040 hey fily - i'm not the best person to answer this question (as i'm really something of a newb myself,) but i'll get you started... every method in ruby returns a value (even if it is nil, thus all the =>nil's in irb.) by default, the value that a method returns is the LAST statement evaluated - which is something to be aware of. note that for the example you have shown this works just as well: def multiply(val1, val2 ) val1 * val2 end value = multiply( 10, 20 ) puts value #=> 200 while there are really times when you want to use 'return,' (which surely someone else can better explain,) generally speaking, the last statement evaluated in your method is what is returned. -j -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.