# returning values and parentheses



## fluca1978 (Jul 9, 2013)

From style(9) there is this statement:


> Values in return statements should be enclosed in parentheses.



so that for instance:


```
return (eight);
```

I was wondering if this is just aesthetical or has some particular advantage from the C language point of view.


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## fonz (Jul 9, 2013)

From a purely linguistic point of view I see absolutely no point whatsoever in doing that, so my money is on aesthetics. Another reason I can think of is that there might be some kind of automated documenting (or other processing) system that benefits from (or requires) it.


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## SirDice (Jul 9, 2013)

I'm no programmer but I think it's common to use the function(argument) notation. Putting the return value in parentheses just keeps things consistent.


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## cpm@ (Jul 9, 2013)

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2006-March/061293.html.


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## fluca1978 (Jul 10, 2013)

This seems the more enlightnening answer in the thread about the usage of parenthesis.


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