Returning values from a function

The idea behind a function is that it not only can be used to package code so we can reuse it over and over but can also do something that will produce some sort of value. In our example with the time calculator, the function has calculated a result, the number of seconds that have elapsed since midnight, and we now want that value at the location where we called the function. Functions have the ability to return data, and this is a feature we can use to get the value.

In its simplest form, returning a value from a function works like this:

function greet()
    return "Hello my friend"
end_function
result = greet()
print result

Here, we have a function called greet. All it does is return a string containing the greeting, Hello my friend. Remember that the code within a function is not executed until the function is actually called. The call happens below the function. Consider what happens when the following row...