return variable of a function

[DartBot]

This issue was originally filed by [email protected]

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The return variable of the function should be able to be referenced in the function body, like in Visual Basic. It will start off with a value of null, and be possibly changed by the function to return a value, e.g. something like "returnset <expression>;", that is like the return statement, but does not pass back control to calling process. Even better, give the variable a fixed identifier like "_returnvalue" so that expressions or array functions can change the value, e.g. "_returnvalue++;".

[DartBot]

This comment was originally written by [email protected]

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Sorry, I don't know how to change the type of issue to "Enhancement".

[DartBot]

This comment was originally written by [email protected]

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I thought of this because many of my JavaScript functions end up declaring a variable that I will in the end return, which is kind of redundant. The return variable name should be short in length, although my example has quite a long one. It also should be fixed, instead of changing with the function name as in BASIC, since the function name should be separate from the function body, so that renaming (on the programmer's side) is easy.

[anders-sandholm]

Removed Type-Defect label.
Added Type-Enhancement, Area-Language labels.

[anders-sandholm]

Added Triaged label.

[gbracha]

Set owner to @gbracha.
Added Accepted label.

[whesse]

I think it is very common for people to use "result" for this, and for them to type:

var result;
at the beginning of the function, and

return result;
at the end of the function.

This seems short and simple enough that it might not
be worth changing the language to make it one or two words shorter.

[DartBot]

This comment was originally written by [email protected]

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But internally, will it be two variables or somehow optimized into one?

[gbracha]

Added WontFix label.