RETURN [ expression ]

A RETURN statement causes an immediate exit from a block of SQL. If expression is supplied, the value of expression is returned as the value of the function or procedure. Subqueries can not be used in expression.

If the RETURN appears inside an inner BEGIN block, it is the outer BEGIN block that is terminated.

Statements following a RETURN statement are not executed.

Within a function, the expression should be of the same data type as the function's RETURNS data type.

Within a procedure, RETURN is used for Transact-SQL-compatibility, and is used to return an integer error code.

None.

None.

• CREATE FUNCTION statement
• CREATE FUNCTION statement (external procedures)
• CREATE FUNCTION statement (web clients)
• CREATE PROCEDURE statement
• CREATE PROCEDURE statement (external procedures)
• CREATE PROCEDURE statement (web clients)
• BEGIN statement
• Returning a value using the RETURN statement

The following function returns the product of three numbers:

CREATE FUNCTION product (
   a NUMERIC,
   b NUMERIC,
   c NUMERIC )
RETURNS NUMERIC
BEGIN
   RETURN ( a * b * c );
END;

Calculate the product of three numbers:

SELECT product(2, 3, 4);

The following procedure uses the RETURN statement to avoid executing a complex query if it is meaningless:

CREATE PROCEDURE customer_products
( in customer_ID integer DEFAULT NULL)
RESULT ( ID integer, quantity_ordered integer )
BEGIN
   IF customer_ID NOT IN (SELECT ID FROM Customers)
   OR customer_ID IS NULL THEN
      RETURN
   ELSE
      SELECT Products.ID,sum(
         SalesOrderItems.Quantity )
      FROM  Products,
            SalesOrderItems,
            SalesOrders
      WHERE SalesOrders.CustomerID=customer_ID
      AND SalesOrders.ID=SalesOrderItems.ID
      AND SalesOrderItems.ProductID=Products.ID
      GROUP BY Products.ID
   END IF
END;