Return Value from R Function

In this article, we will discuss how to return value from a function in R Programming Language.

Method 1: R function with return value

In this scenario, we will use the return statement to return some value

Syntax:

function_name <- function(parameters) {      

statements

 return(value)

}

function_name(values)

Where,

• function_name is the name of the function
• parameters are the values that are passed as arguments
• return() is used to return a value
• function_name(values) is used to pass values to the parameters

Example: R program to perform addition operation with return value

R

# define addition function
# perform addition operation on two values
addition= function(val1,val2) {

  # add
  add=val1+val2

  # return the result
  return(add)

}

# pass the values to the function
addition(10,20)

Output:

[1] 30

Method 2: R function without using return

Here without using return function we will return a value. For this just passing the name of the variable that stores the value to returned works.

Syntax:

function_name <- function(parameters) {      

statements

value

}

function_name(values)

where,

• function_name is the name of the function
• parameters are the values that are passed as arguments
• value is the return value
• function_name(values) is used to pass values to the parameters

Example: R program to perform addition operation without using return function

R

# define addition function
# perform addition operation on two values
addition= function(val1,val2) {
  # add
  add=val1+val2

  # return the result with out using return
  add
}

# pass the values to the function
addition(10,20)

Output:

[1] 30

Method 3: R function to return multiple values as a list

In this scenario, we will use the list() function in the return statement to return multiple values.

Syntax:

function_name <- function(parameters) {      

statements

return(list(value1,value2,.,value n)

}

function_name(values)

where,

• function_name is the name of the function
• parameters are the values that are passed as arguments
• return() function takes list of values as input
• function_name(values) is used to pass values to the parameters

Example: R program to perform arithmetic operations and return those values

R

# define arithmetic function
# perform arithmetic operations on two values
arithmetic = function(val1,val2) {

  # add
  add=val1+val2

  # subtract
  sub=val1-val2

  # multiply
  mul=val1*val2

  # divide
  div=val2/val1

  # return the result as a list
  return(list(add,sub,mul,div))
}

# pass the values to the function
arithmetic(10,20)

Output:

[[1]]
[1] 30

[[2]]
[1] -10

[[3]]
[1] 200

[[4]]
[1] 2