# Why is this function valid julia syntax?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-function-valid-julia-syntax/83984
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** question
**Created:** [July 9, 2022, 9:36am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-function-valid-julia-syntax/83984 "2022-07-09T09:36:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@lukas.grunwald](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lukas.grunwald)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2022, 9:36am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-function-valid-julia-syntax/83984/1 "2022-07-09T09:36:22Z")
The following function is valid julia code (in the sense that there is no parsing error)
```julia
function temp(x::AbstractArray)
x[1] = 1 +
return nothing
# This is the same as writing x[1] = 1 + return nothing
end
```
which lowers to
```julia
CodeInfo(
1 ─ return Main.nothing
)
```
I find this very unintuitive and would have expected the code to error instead of lowering to the above expression. Why is `1 + return nothing` valid julia syntax, and why is the assignment statement in this case essentially ignored?
---
### Author:  [@dfdx](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dfdx)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2022, 9:44am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-function-valid-julia-syntax/83984/2 "2022-07-09T09:44:33Z")
I guess because:
1. `return ...` is a valid Julia expression, i.e. it can be combined with other expressions. This is very convenient e.g. in REPL.
2. Assignment happens after the `return` and thus is effectively unreachable.