[Help-bash] Functions and interactive scripts

[Richard Taubo]

Hi!

I was think about creating an interactive script and output the result
to a variable like this:
=========================
function ask_question() {
        printf "$1"
        read ANSWER
        printf "Answer: $ANSWER\n"
}

the_answer=$(ask_question "Are you happy?")
printf  "$the_answer"
=========================

This obviously does not work.
Do I need to use a global variable in such a case, or are there better options?
With global:
=========================
function ask_question() {
        printf "$1"
        read ANSWER
}

ask_question "Are you happy?"
the_answer=$ANSWER
ANSWER=""
printf  "Answer: $the_answer\n"
=========================


Thanks for input!

Richard Taubo