note 99957 modified in function.return by danbrown

This is for mostly the newbies. If you create a function and you want it to either return false or true then you must explicitly state it. I know this should go without saying. But it's better explained with an example. I'm looking through an array to see if the contents of the array mismatch ( ex: email verification). <?php function check_array()){ foreach($array as $key => $value){ if($value != $match){ echo "The email fields don't match!"; return; // this by default returns false. } } } ?> Now what if the array I pass this time is valid and the contents of it match? Then the function check_array() should return true right? not so fast.If I still call this function it will still return false and thus cause unexpected results. It's not like the typical: if(function_name()) echo "i know this is true"; else echo"this has to be false"; Instead when using the return and say: if(check_array()) echo " then this part will never execute because return is always false"; else "but this part will always execute but return false, even if the array contents match simply because return is always false"; If I want it to return true when the array contents all match then I must explicitly add the else statement: else return true; like this: <?php function check_array()){ foreach($array as $key => $value){ if($value != $match){ echo "The email fields don't match!"; return; // this by default returns false. }else return true; } } ?> --was-- This is for mostly the newbies. If you create a function and you want it to either return false or true then you must explicitly state it. I know this should go without saying. But it's better explained with an example. I'm looking through an array to see if the contents of the array mismatch ( ex: email verification). function check_array()){ foreach($array as $key => $value){ if($value != $match){ echo "The email fields don't match!"; return; // this by default returns false. } } } Now what if the array I pass this time is valid and the contents of it match? Then the function check_array() should return true right? not so fast.If I still call this function it will still return false and thus cause unexpected results. It's not like the typical: if(function_name()) echo "i know this is true"; else echo"this has to be false"; Instead when using the return and say: if(check_array()) echo " then this part will never execute because return is always false"; else "but this part will always execute but return false, even if the array contents match simply because return is always false"; If I want it to return true when the array contents all match then I must explicitly add the else statement: else return true; like this: function check_array()){ foreach($array as $key => $value){ if($value != $match){ echo "The email fields don't match!"; return; // this by default returns false. }else return true; } } http://php.net/manual/en/function.return.php