RETURN (Snowflake Scripting)¶

Syntax¶

RETURN <expression>;

Where:

expression

An expression that evaluates to the value to return.

Usage notes¶

• A RETURN statement can be executed in:

  • A stored procedure.

  • An anonymous block.

• A RETURN statement returns one of the following types:

  • A SQL data type

  • A table. Use TABLE(...) in the RETURN statement.

    If your block is in a stored procedure, you must also specify the RETURNS TABLE... clause in the CREATE PROCEDURE statement.

    Note

    Currently, in the RETURNS TABLE(...) clause, you can’t specify GEOGRAPHY as a column type. This applies whether you are creating a stored or anonymous procedure.

    CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE test_return_geography_table_1()
      RETURNS TABLE(g GEOGRAPHY)
      ...
    

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    WITH test_return_geography_table_1() AS PROCEDURE
      RETURNS TABLE(g GEOGRAPHY)
      ...
    CALL test_return_geography_table_1();
    

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    If you attempt to specify GEOGRAPHY as a column type, calling the stored procedure results in the error:

    Stored procedure execution error: data type of returned table does not match expected returned table type
    

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    To work around this issue, you can omit the column arguments and types in RETURNS TABLE().

    CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE test_return_geography_table_1()
      RETURNS TABLE()
      ...
    

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    WITH test_return_geography_table_1() AS PROCEDURE
      RETURNS TABLE()
      ...
    CALL test_return_geography_table_1();
    

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    If you want to return the data that a RESULTSET points to, pass the RESULTSET to TABLE(…), as shown in the example below:

    CREATE PROCEDURE ...
    RETURNS TABLE(...)
    ...
        RETURN TABLE(my_result_set);
    ...
    

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    See Returning a RESULTSET as a table.

• You can set a variable to the return value of a stored procedure. For more information, see Using the value returned from a stored procedure call.