JavaScript SyntaxError - Return not in function

JavaScript SyntaxError – Return not in function

Last Updated : 24 Jul, 2020

This JavaScript exception return (or yield) not in function occurs if a return/yield statement is written outside the body of function.

Message:

SyntaxError: 'return' statement outside of function (Edge)
SyntaxError: return not in function (Firefox)
SyntaxError: yield not in function (Firefox)

Error Type:

SyntaxError

What happened?

Either the return or yield statement is called outside the body of the function or there might be a missing curly bracket in the code.

Example 1: In this example, there is a missing curly bracket after the ‘if’ statement, so the error has occurred.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Syntax Error</title>
</head>
<body>
    <script>
    var GFG = function(val) {
      if (val === 'GFG')
        return 'Text1';
      }; 
       /* looks like function ends here, because of
       missing opening curly bracket after 'if' keyword*/
      if (val === 'Geek') {
        return 'Text2';
      }
    }
    document.write(GFG());
    </script>
</body>
</html>

Output(In console):

SyntaxError: 'return' statement outside of function

Example 2: In this example, the return statement is written after the function has ended, So the error has occurred.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Syntax Error</title>
</head>
<body>
    <script>
    var GFG = function(val) {
      if (val === 'GFG')
        return 'Text1';
      if (val === 'Geek') {
        return 'Text2';
      }
    };
    return "Text3"; 
  // this is outside the function body.
    document.write(GFG('GFG'));
    </script>
</body>
</html>

Output(In console):

SyntaxError: 'return' statement outside of function

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