RETURN statement

The RETURN statement can be used to return an implicit value or the result of a query, and to set the return value for a transaction, block, or function.

Statement syntax

SurrealQL Syntax
RETURN @value

Example usage

Basic usage

RETURN is always followed by a value. As every data type in SurrealDB is a type of value, the RETURN statement can return anything from simple values to the result of queries.

-- Return a simple value
RETURN 123;
RETURN "I am a string!";
RETURN {
	prop: "value"
};

-- Return the result of a query
RETURN SELECT * FROM person;
RETURN (CREATE person).id;

Values on their own are treated as if they have an implicit RETURN in front. As such, the following queries return the same output as in the previous example.

123;
"I am a string!";
{
	prop: "value"
};
SELECT * FROM person;
(CREATE person).id;

Transaction return value

RETURN statements can set the result of any transaction. This includes transactions, blocks and functions.

Transaction return value
BEGIN TRANSACTION;

-- We are executing quite a few queries here
LET $firstname = "John";
LET $lastname = "Doe";

LET $person = CREATE person CONTENT {
	firstname: $firstname,
	lastname: $lastname,
};

-- But because we end with a RETURN query, only the person's ID will be returned
-- The results of the other queries will be omitted.
RETURN $person.id;

-- One issue with this approach is that query errors are generic.
-- To get around that, use a block, which is executed as a transaction by itself.

COMMIT TRANSACTION;

Return breaks execution

Available since: v2.0.0

Opposite to RETURN in SurrealDB 1.x, RETURN now breaks execution of statements, functions and transactions.

Function return value
DEFINE FUNCTION fn::person::create($firstname: string, $lastname: string) {
	LET $person = CREATE person CONTENT {
		firstname: $firstname,
		lastname: $lastname,
	};

	-- The RETURN statement will set the return value of the custom function, and further queries will not be executed.
	RETURN $person.id;

    -- This query will never be executed
    CREATE person SET firstname = "Stephen", lastname = "Strange";
};

fn::person::create("Thanos", "Johnson");
SELECT * FROM person;

Functions
DEFINE FUNCTION fn::round::up($num: number) {
    IF $num % 2 == 0 {
        RETURN $num; -- Breaks execution for the function
    };

    -- This is only executed if the RETURN inside the IF statement did not break execution
    RETURN $num + 1;
};

Transactions
BEGIN;
RETURN 1; -- I am executed
CREATE a; -- I am not executed
RETURN 2; -- I am not executed
COMMIT;

Lastly, if not executed inside a transaction or function, RETURN will break execution until the most top-level statement it is executed in. RETURN will not prevent top level statements from being executed, nor will it adjust their output.

Statements
LET $id = 123;
LET $id = {
    IF $id {
        RETURN type::thing('table', $id);
    };

    RETURN table:rand();
};

-- This still executes. The `RETURN` statement only broke until the block in the variable assignment.
CREATE $id;