SyntaxError: return not in function

The JavaScript exception "return not in function" occurs when a return statement is called outside of a function.

Message#

SyntaxError: Illegal return statement (V8-based)
SyntaxError: return not in function (Firefox)
SyntaxError: Return statements are only valid inside functions. (Safari)

Error type#

{{jsxref("SyntaxError")}}.

What went wrong?#

A return statement is called outside of a function. Maybe there are missing curly braces somewhere? The return statement must be in a function, because it ends function execution and specifies a value to be returned to the function caller.

Examples#

Missing curly braces#

```js-nolint example-bad function cheer(score) { if (score === 147) return "Maximum!"; } if (score > 100) { return "Century!"; } }

// SyntaxError: return not in function

The curly braces look correct at a first glance, but this code snippet is missing a `{` after the first `if` statement. Correct would be:

```js example-good
function cheer(score) {
  if (score === 147) {
    return "Maximum!";
  }
  if (score > 100) {
    return "Century!";
  }
}

See also#

• return