How to detect the buffer number of new buffer?

Question

I would like to create a new scratch buffer in vim script. I would like to use this buffer to output the result of the execution of a scala script.

I am creating the buffer with this function:

function! ScratchBuffer()
  vnew
  setlocal nobuflisted buftype=nofile bufhidden=wipe noswapfile
endfunction 

then I call it as follows:

let outputBuf = ScratchBuffer()

outputbuf should contain the buffer number. However, this doesn't seem to work. I need the buffer number in order to then use the buffer in a python script.

Answer 1

Your function returns nothing, but you call it expecting the buffer number. This should work:

function! ScratchBuffer()
  vnew
  setlocal nobuflisted buftype=nofile bufhidden=wipe noswapfile
  return bufnr('%')
endfunction