Functions and return values

In Bash, a function cannot return any value. We can handle it in different ways. An alternative is that we set a value to a global variable:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# An example script on return alternatives 1

result=0

function count {
    for value in "$@"
    do
        (( result+=value ))
    done
}

count 29 10 3

echo "$result" # 42

Another option is to capture an echo from the function and use command substitution:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# An example script on return alternatives 2

function count {
    total=0

    for value in "$@"
    do
        (( total+=value ))
    done

    echo "$total"
}

result=$(count 15 7 20)

echo "$result" # 42

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