What is the purpose of the return statement in programming?

The purpose of the return statement in programming is to end the execution of a function and send a specific value back to the caller of that function. When a function is executed, it may perform computations or processes and ultimately needs a way to provide results back to the part of the program that initiated the function call. The return statement serves this purpose by specifying what value to pass back.

Upon encountering a return statement, the function stops executing, and control is passed back to the code that called the function, along with the value specified by the return statement. This allows for better modularity and reusability of code since functions can be created to perform specific tasks and return results that can be utilized elsewhere in the program.

This mechanism is crucial for functional programming, as it allows functions to produce outputs that can be processed further, enabling more complex logic and flow of data through the program.