R in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Return Values

In an R function, you may use the return function to specify the value returned by the function. For example:

> f <- function(x) {return(x^2 + 3)}
> f(3)
[1] 12

However, R will simply return the last evaluated expression as the result of a function. So it is common to omit the return statement:

> f <- function(x) {x^2 + 3}
> f(3)
[1] 12

In some cases, an explicit return value may lead to cleaner code.