Question

I am working with a PHP library to generate Excel files which consists of several functions. This is one of the functions:

// Excel begin of file header
function xlsBOF() {
    pack("ssssss", 0x809, 0x8, 0x0, 0x10, 0x0, 0x0); 
    return;
}

I am not sure what the ‘return’ returns? Can someone clarify this please.

Answer 1

Its the same as

return null;

It leaves the function and sets null as return value. In some situation the statement return; makes clear, that this function returns “nothing” null, instead of “value” null. Other languages (and documentations) often use void for this.