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Declares the name, arguments, and code that form the body of a Function procedure.
[Public | Private] Function name [(arglist)]
[statements]
[name = expression]
[Exit Function]
[statements]
[name = expression]
End Function
Public
The Function procedure is accessible to all other procedures in all scripts.
Private
The Function procedure is accessible only to other procedures in the script where it is declared Static. Indicates that the Function procedure's local variables are preserved between calls. The Static attribute doesn't affect variables that are declared outside the Function, even if they are used in the procedure.
name
The name of the Function; follows standard variable naming conventions.
arglist
A list of variables representing arguments that are passed to the Function procedure when it is called. Multiple variables are separated by commas.
The arglist argument has the following syntax and parts:
[ByVal | ByRef] varname[( )]
ByVal
The argument is passed by value.
ByRef
The argument is passed by reference.
varname
The name of the variable representing the arguments; follows standard variable naming conventions.
statements
Any group of statements to be executed within the body of the Function procedure.
expression
Returns the value of the Function.
If not explicitly specified using either Public or Private, Function procedures are public by default, that is, they are visible to all other procedures in your script. The value of local variables in a Function is not preserved between calls to the procedure.
All executable code must be contained in procedures. You can't define a Function procedure inside another Function or Sub procedure.
The Exit statement causes an immediate exit from a Function procedure. Program execution continues with the statement following the statement that called the Function procedure. Any number of Exit Function statements can appear anywhere in a Function procedure.
Like a Sub procedure, a Function procedure is a separate procedure that can take arguments, perform a series of statements, and change the values of its arguments. However, unlike a Sub procedure, you can use a Function procedure on the right side of an expression in the same way you use any intrinsic function, such as Sqr, Cos, or Chr, when you want to use the value returned by the function.
Call a Function procedure in an expression using the function name followed by the argument list in parentheses. See the Call statement for specific information on how to call Function procedures.
Caution
Function procedures can be recursive; that is, they can call themselves to perform a given task. However, recursion can lead to stack overflow.
To return a value from a function, assign the value to the function name. Any number of such assignments can appear anywhere within the procedure. If no value is assigned to name, the procedure returns a default value: a numeric function returns 0 and a string function returns a zero-length string (""). A function that returns an object reference returns Nothing if no object reference is assigned to name (using Set) within the Function.
The following example shows how to assign a return value to a function named BinarySearch. In this case, False is assigned to the name to indicate that some value was not found.
Function BinarySearch(. . .)
. . .
' Value not found. Return a value of False.
If lower > upper Then
BinarySearch = False
Exit Function
End If
. . .
End Function
Variables used in Function procedures fall into two categories: those that are explicitly declared within the procedure and those that are not. Variables that are explicitly declared in a procedure (using Dim or the equivalent) are always local to the procedure. Variables that are used but not explicitly declared in a procedure are also local unless they are explicitly declared at some higher level outside the procedure.
Caution
A procedure can use a variable that is not explicitly declared in the procedure, but a naming conflict can occur if anything you have defined at the script level has the same name. If your procedure refers to an undeclared variable that has the same name as another procedure, constant, or variable, it is assumed that your procedure is referring to that script-level name. Explicitly declare variables to avoid this kind of conflict. You can use an Option Explicit statement to force explicit declaration of variables.
Caution
VBScript may rearrange arithmetic expressions to increase internal efficiency. Avoid using a Function procedure in an arithmetic expression when the function changes the value of variables in the same expression.
Copyright 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Legal Notice.