I don't disagree with the other answers, but I'd like to talk about what I see as a more underlying issue.
Generally speaking, functions return the value of the last expression within them. myfun <- function(x) { z <- sqrt(x) 2 } Then y <- myfun(7) assigns 2 to y because 2 was the last expression in the function. myfun <- function(z) { cat('inside myfun\n') y <- z-7 x <- 2*z sqrt(z) } y <- myfun(c(1,4,9)) assigns c(1,2,3) to y because sqrt(z) was the last expression. x and y are lost and gone forever. Note that return() was not used, and does not need to be used. Thus, if you want to return something that includes some of the variables introduced inside the function, you gather them into a suitable structure and make that the last expression in the function. myfun <- function(z) { y <- z-7 x <- 2*z list(x=x, y=y, rtz=sqrt(z)) } Then y <- myfun(4) returns a list with three elements whose values are -3, 8, and 2. Again no use of return(). There are cases where return() is useful, but it is not needed in simple cases like these. (and I can't imagine what's awkward about using return(value), but that's another question) -Don -- Don MacQueen Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 7000 East Ave., L-627 Livermore, CA 94550 925-423-1062 On 4/15/15, 3:17 PM, "merm" <pione...@student.unimelb.edu.au> wrote: >Hi! > >So I'm trying as the header suggests to assign the value(s) output by a >function to a variable, say 'y' > >Problem is from what I gather any variables introduced within the function >are contained and the only output I can get is "return(value)" which is >awkward to work with. Any suggestions? > >Cheers! > > > >-- >View this message in context: >http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/assign-variables-to-function-output-tp470592 >0.html >Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > >______________________________________________ >R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >PLEASE do read the posting guide >http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.