[erlang-questions] Why doesn't Erlang has return statement?

[Loïc Hoguin]

Erlang has no statements, it only has expressions. All expressions 
return a value. So there is no need for a "return" instruction, the last 
expression executed gives the return value of the function.

If you use function clauses in addition to case expressions, you 
shouldn't have too many levels deep. If you do, create a new function. 
Avoid using catch for these things because it creates a stacktrace and 
that's expensive.

On 12/16/2014 10:05 AM, aman mangal wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I have seen similar questions before on the forum but I could never
> understand the reason behind it. Is it due to theoretical reasons such
> as /return /statement makes it hard to reason about the program or
> practical reasons that it is hard to implement it (this doesn't seem
> right but I cannot think of anything else)?
>
> Moreover, is there a good alternate to avoid nested case statements?
> Making more functions just seems tedious. Using /catch /statement seems
> another good alternate but my intuition is that it is not good practice,
> is it?
>
> Thank you
> Aman Mangal
> www.prism.gatech.edu/~amangal7 <http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~amangal7>
>
>
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-- 
Loïc Hoguin
http://ninenines.eu