Palautustyypiltään

Palautustyypiltään is a Finnish expression used to describe something by its return type, especially in programming and technical writing. It is formed from palautus (return) and tyyppi (type) with the suffix -ltään, which conveys the idea of describing something “in terms of” or “by.” The phrase can be translated roughly as “in terms of its return type” or “by return type.”

In practice, palautustyypiltään is used to classify functions, expressions, or results according to the type they return. It is common in documentation, code reviews, and API descriptions when the writer wants to emphasize how the return value determines behavior or handling. The expression often precedes or accompanies a noun or a noun phrase that names the type category.

Examples:

- Tämän funktion palautustyypiltään on int.

- Luettelo ohjelman funktioista on jaettu palautustyypiltään boolean- ja string-tyyppisiin palautuksiin.

- Ehtoarviointi voi riippua palautustyypiltään boolean-arvosta.

Notes:

Palautustyypiltään is mainly used in technical contexts related to programming and data types. It is less common in everyday Finnish outside of software development. It is closely related to other terms such as palautus (return) and tietotyyppi (data type), and it helps clarify discussions about code behavior based on what a function returns.