Return values

Scheme procedures always return a return value, which is the value of the last expression executed in the procedure. The return value can be any valid Scheme value, including a complex data structure or a procedure.

Sometimes the user would like to have multiple Scheme expressions in a procedure. There are two ways that multiple expressions can be combined. The first is the begin procedure, which allows multiple expressions to be evaluated, and returns the value of the last expression.

guile> (begin (+ 1 2) (- 5 8) (* 2 2))
4

The second way to combine multiple expressions is in a let block. In a let block, a series of bindings are created, and then a sequence of expressions that can include those bindings is evaluated. The return value of the let block is the return value of the last statement in the let block:

guile> (let ((x 2) (y 3) (z 4)) (display (+ x y)) (display (- z 4))
… (+ (* x y) (/ z x)))
508