Contract function returns address?

Question

Learning ethereum, I am hoping this is an easy one. I wrote a simple test contract

contract Mini{
uint balance;

// constructor
// runs once upon creation
function Mini(){
    balance = 1000;
}

function deposit(uint _value) returns(uint _newValue){
    balance += _value;
    return balance;
}

function benchmark() returns(uint _newValue){
    return 4545;
}}

When I invoke "benchmark"

    var result = myContractInstance.benchmark(function(err,res){
        console.log(res);
    });

The response is an address (e.g. 0xd1d618bcb179db8b020358710138d1a008f4f39e). I can see the transaction in etherscan. Question, how do I see the response value?

Answer 1

benchmark is not a constant function so it will return a transaction id for you.

if you need to return a value or read a value from block chain you can use constant function

function benchmark() public constant returns(uint _newValue){ return 4545; }}

Answer 2

I got it to work. I was missing "constant" and "view". Here is the final contract:

contract Mini{
    uint balance;

    // constructor
    function Mini(){
        balance = 1000;
    }

    function deposit(uint _value) public returns(uint _newValue){
        balance += _value;
        return balance;
    }

    function withdraw(uint _value) view  returns(uint _newValue){
        balance -= _value;
        return balance;
    }

    function benchmark() public  constant returns(uint _newValue){
        return 4545;
    }

    function getBalance() public constant returns(uint _newValue){
       return balance;
    } 
}

I was then able call the functions as follows:

var MyContract = web3.eth.contract(abi);

var myContractInstance = MyContract.at('YourContractAddress');


myContractInstance.benchmark(function(err,res){
    console.log(res);
});

myContractInstance.deposit(200,function(err,res){
    console.log(res);
});

myContractInstance.withdraw(50,function(err,res){
    console.log(res);
});

myContractInstance.getBalance(function(err,res){
    console.log(res);
});