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Bash - return string from function

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Created by:

Khloe-Kaiser

578

In this short article, we would like to show how to return string / text from a function in Bash.

Quick solution:

use echo "$my_variable" to print a string inside a function (return works only with numbers),
use my_variable="$(my_function)" to call the function, and retrieve the string.

Practical example:

xxxxxxxxxx
 
#!/bin/bash
​
function my_function()
{
    local my_variable='Some text inside ...'
    echo "$my_variable"
}
​
my_variable="$(my_function)"
echo "$my_variable"

Alternative solution

Edit

You can use the global variables approach, which requires keeping some order in the source code.

xxxxxxxxxx
 
#!/bin/bash
​
function my_function()
{
    my_variable='Some text inside ...'
}
​
my_function
echo "$my_variable"

or:

xxxxxxxxxx
 
#!/bin/bash
​
function_result='';  # should be used only to store last function call result
​
function my_function()
{
    local my_variable='Some text inside ...'
​
    function_result="$my_variable"
    return 0   # 0             - means success
               # 1, 2, 3, etc. - means error (some error code)
}
​
if my_function
then
    echo "$function_result"
fi

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Bash - return text from function

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Bash - return string from function

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