return code

return code

[ri′tərn ‚kōd]

(computer science)

An indicator that is issued by a computer upon completion of a subroutine or function, or of the entire program, that indicates the result of the processing and, in particular, whether the processing was successful or ended abnormally because of an error.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

return code

(1) A message, typically numeric, that is sent by a function, program or server back to the program that called it in order to report the outcome of the processing. Also called an "exit code." See HTTP return codes.

(2) The "carriage return" character code, which is embedded into text to signal the end of line. See CR.

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