Returning and capturing multiple return values from a function

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi
I am pretty confused in returning and capturing multiple values
i have defined a function which should return values "total, difference"
i have used as

#!/usr/bin/ksh
calc()
{
total=$1+$2
echo "$total"
diff=$2-$1
echo "$diff"
}

I have invoked this function as
calc 5 8

Now i need the value of $total and $diff after the function is being invoked..
Please help..

2

Hi
in ksh you can do in this way

#!/bin/ksh
calc()
{
  A=$1
  B=$2
  total=$(( A + B ))
  diff=$(( A - B ))
  echo "$total $diff"
}
RES=$( calc  5 8 )
TOT=$( echo $RES | cut -f 1 )
DIF=$( echo $RES | cut -f 2 )
echo $TOT
echo $DIF

But with bash is shorter:

#!/bin/bash
calc()
{
  A=$1
  B=$2
  total=$(( A + B ))
  diff=$(( A - B ))
  echo "$total $diff"
}
read TOT DIF < <(calc 5 8)
echo $TOT
echo $DIF
3

Just $1+$2 will not do the arithmetic operation in UNIX. You need to have as highlighted below and i believe you include the call to the function at the end of the function calc as

#!/usr/bin/ksh 
calc() 
{ 
total=$(($1+$2)) 
echo "$total" 
diff=$(($2-$1)) 
echo "$diff" 
}
calc 5 7