Function Return in Perl

In Perl, a method or function can return a value using the return keyword. The return statement exits the method or function and returns the specified value to the calling program.

Here is an example of how to define a function that returns the sum of two numbers in Perl:

sub add_numbers {
   my ($num1, $num2) = @_;
   my $sum = $num1 + $num2;
   return $sum;
}

In the above code, add_numbers is a function that takes two arguments $num1 and $num2. The two input numbers are added together and stored in the variable $sum. The return statement returns the value of $sum.

To use this function, you can call it and assign the return value to a variable, like this:

my $result = add_numbers(5, 7);

In this example, the add_numbers function is called with the arguments 5 and 7. The returned value, 12, is stored in the variable $result.

Alternatively, you can also return a list of values from a function using the return statement separated by commas, like this:

sub get_name_and_age {
   my $name = "John";
   my $age = 30;
   return $name, $age;
}

In this example, the get_name_and_age function returns two values, $name and $age. To use this function, you can assign the return values to a list, like this:

my ($name, $age) = get_name_and_age();

In this example, the get_name_and_age function is called and the two returned values are assigned to the variables $name and $age.