Return long integer value from a function in ksh

Question

I use the below function in ksh to return the long value of date parts

function convert_date_to_long {
    long_date="${1}${2}${3}"

    return $long_date;
}

but the result i get is 209 when i pass the parameters 2015 02 25 .

How do i get the long value 20150225?

i tried it . so instead of return i gave echo $long_date but when i call the $? to get the value it returns 0 — xGen, Jan 19 '16 at 12:51
Yes, because the echo command success. What do you actually want? — cuonglm, Jan 19 '16 at 12:54
My requirement is to return the above value 20150225. Using return command it used to work for smaller numbers. But not sure why it is not allowed for large values — xGen, Jan 19 '16 at 13:00
Got it !. So i should assign function to a variable as mentioned in the other post for echo to work. Thanks ! long_date=$(convert_date_to_long $year $month $day) — xGen, Jan 19 '16 at 13:02

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 20 '16 at 20:45

return sets the exit status of the function, and this is a number between 0 and 255. If the number is larger than that, you get its value mod 256, and 20150225 % 256 is 209.

To get a string as output from a function, the function should echo it, and then you can capture it in the caller with command substution.

function convert_date_to_long {
    echo "${1}${2}${3}"
}

some_var=$(convert_date_to_long 2015 02 25)

Return long integer value from a function in ksh

1 Answers1