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# INFO: Understanding the RETURN Command

Article ID: 119900

Article Last Modified on 3/3/2005

APPLIES TO

- Microsoft Visual FoxPro 3.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Visual FoxPro 5.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0 Professional Edition
- Microsoft FoxPro 2.0
- Microsoft FoxPro 2.6 for MS-DOS
- Microsoft FoxPro 2.6a Standard Edition
- Microsoft FoxPro 2.6 Standard Edition
- Microsoft FoxPro 2.6a Standard Edition
- Microsoft FoxPro 2.6 for SCO/UNIX

This article was previously published under Q119900

## SUMMARY

The RETURN command provides a great deal of flexibility over program control. RETURN terminates execution of a program, procedure, or function. Depending on how RETURN is used, control is returned to the calling program, the highest-level calling program, another program, or the Command window. The sample code below illustrates the power of the RETURN command.

## MORE INFORMATION

Enter the following code in a program call RETTEST.PRG:

       PARAMETER x  &amp;&amp; line 1

       ON ERROR DO myErr
       DO A
       WAIT WINDOW 'In master'   &amp;&amp; line 5

       ON ERROR

       PROCEDURE A
       DO B
       WAIT WINDOW 'In A'   &amp;&amp; line 11

       PROCEDURE B
       x=testing
       WAIT WINDOW 'In B'  &amp;&amp; line 15

       PROCEDURE myErr
       DO CASE

CASE x = 'master' RETURN TO MASTER CASE EMPTY(x) RETURN OTHERWISE RETURN TO &x

       ENDCASE

To demonstrate the capabilities of the RETURN command, try the following three invocations of the above program from the Command window.

- The following command returns to line 5 without executing lines 11 or 15: DO rettest WITH "master"
- The following command returns to line 11 without executing line 15: DO rettest WITH "A"
- The following command returns to line 15, the line of code immediately following the line that generated the error: DO rettest WITH ""

The program is so short that it may be helpful to use the Trace window and step through the code. For additional information about using the Trace window, see the "Debugging" chapter of the "Developer's Guide" and the "Program Menu" chapter of the "User's Guide."

## REFERENCES

FoxPro "Language Reference"

Additional query words: VFoxWin FoxUnix FoxMac FoxDos FoxWin 2.50 2.50a 2.50b 2.50c

Keywords: kbinfo kbcode KB119900