Return results in Robot Framework keyword?

Question

How can I return the results after running a keyword?

Example:

mykey word [Arguments] input    ${results}=  getme input 

But I want to use these results:

 ${results} = mykey word  newinput 

Answer 1

The Robot Framework user's guide describes how to return a value from a keyword. See User keyword return values.

The short version is: set a variable in your keyword, and use the [return] testcase setting to return that variable.

Here's an example:

*** Keywords *** mykey word   [Arguments]  ${input}   ${string}=  set variable  the string is "${input}"   [return]  ${string}  *** Test Cases *** Call custom keyword and get result   ${results}=  mykey word  newinput   Should be equal    ${results}    the string is "newinput" 

Robot also provides several keywords to explicitly return a value from anywhere in a keyword:

• Return from keyword
• Return from keyword if
• Run keyword and return
• Run keyword and return if
• Run keyword and return status