A subroutine will return to its caller the result of the last evaluated expression. I would recommend to use return() in all cases within all branches, unless you know why/when not to.

Here's an example of output of values. Note that say() is just a glorified print(), but it adds a newline at the end by default. Nothing special here...

use warnings;
use strict;
use feature 'say';

sub return_print {
    my $x = 254;
    print "$x\n";
}
sub return_return {
    my $x = 255;
    return $x;
}

say "print:  " . return_print();
say "return: " . return_return();

[download]

Output:

254
print:  1
return: 255

[download]

So, the first output (254) is the output from the print() call. The second output (print: 1) is the output of a successful call to print(), which is 1. The third value is the return value explicitly sent via return().

I would highly recommend you play around and get a grasp on what return values you're getting from and/or expecting from your function/method calls.

All of your tests should be checking against all possible and potential return values so there aren't any unexpected results. If there are any odd things found, add more tests, or fix your subroutines to ensure they only return very specific value(s).

In reply to Re^3: Refactoring just to refactor? by stevieb
in thread Refactoring just to refactor? by Lady_Aleena

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.