Can a function return a custom TYPE?

[12centuries]

Hello! Former PDS 7.1 developer here, and I recently stumbled on some of my old source code files while digging through an old hard drive. That led me to qb64 and eventually here!

So I decided to take a stab at completing a little text-based map scroller that I started a few decades ago, and I'm using some of the new conventions available with QB64PE.

It brings me my first question: Can a function return a custom TYPE? If so, how?

Consider the following code:

Code: (Select All)

' Split a "label:value" string in to two parts, stored as a custom TYPE



Type config_item_type

    Label As String

    Value As String

End Type



Dim config_item As config_item_type

line$ = "title: Main Entrance"

config_item = Split_Header_line(lines$)

' Expecting config_item.Label = "title" and config_item.Value = "Main Entrance"



Function Split_Header_Line (line$)

    Dim result As config_item_type



    i% = InStr(line$, ":")

    If i% Then

        result.Label = LCase$(Left$(line$, i%))

        result.Value = LTrim$(Mid$(line$, i% + 1))

    End If

    Split_Header_Line = result

END FUNCTION 

I get the following two errors:

Expected = similar user defined type on line 10

and

User defined types in expresssions are invalid on line 21

Is this telling me that I can't use TYPEd variables as return types for functions or am I missing something more obvious?