Functions in C
Courtesy: Dr. Md. Alamgir Hosssain, Associate Professor, Dept. of ICT, IU
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Index
§ Function § Types of user-defined functions
§ No Argument Passed and No
§ Types of functions Return value
§ User-defined § No Argument Passed But Return
function Value
§ Function § Argument Passed But No Return
prototypes Value
§ Calling Function § Argument Passed and Returns a
§ Function Definition Value
§ Passing arguments § Recursion
to a function § Storage class
§ Return Statement § automatic
§ external
§ static
§ register
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What is Function? (1/2)
§ Function is a self contained block of statements that
perform a coherent task of some kind
§ Every C program can be a thought of the collection of
functions
§ main( ) is also a function
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What is Function? (2/2)
§ Suppose, you need to create a program to create a
circle and color it.
You can create two functions to solve this problem:
§ create a circle function
§ create a color function
§ Dividing a complex problem into smaller chunks makes
our program easy to understand and reuse.
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Types of Function
Library functions
These are the built in functions of of ‘‘C’’ library. These are
already defined in header files
e.g. printf ( ); is a function which is used to print at output.
It is defined in‘‘stdio.h’’
User defined functions
Programmer can create their own function in C to perform
specific task
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How user-defined function works
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Advantages of user-defined function
§ The program will be easier to understand, maintain and
debug
§ Reusable codes that can be used in other programs
§ A large project can be divided among many
programmers
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Example: C user-defined functions
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Function prototype (1/2)
§ A function prototype is simply the declaration of a
function that specifies function's name, parameters and
return type. It doesn't contain function body
§ A function prototype gives information to the compiler
that the function may later be used in the program
Syntax of Function prototype
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Function prototype (2/2)
In the above example, int addNumbers(int a, int b); is
the function prototype which provides the following
information to the compiler:
§ name of the function is addNumbers()
§ return type of the function is int
§ two arguments of type int are passed to the function
The function prototype is not needed if the user-defined
function is defined before the main() function
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Calling Function
§ Control of the program is transferred to the user-
defined function by calling it
Syntax of function call
In the above example, the function call is made using
addNumbers(n1, n2);
statement inside the main() function
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Function Definition
§ Function definition contains the block of code to perform
a specific task
§ In our example, adding two numbers and returning it
Syntax of function definition
§ When a function is called, the control of the program is
transferred to the function definition
§ And, the compiler starts executing the codes inside the
body of a function
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Passing arguments to a function
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Return Statement
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Syntax of return statement
Return statement syntax:
For Example:
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Types of user-defined functions
§ No Argument Passed and No Return value
§ No Argument Passed But Return Value
§ Argument Passed But No Return Value
§ Argument Passed and Return a Value
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No Argument Passed and No Return
Value
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No Argument Passed and but Return
Value
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Argument Passed and But No Return
Value
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Argument Passed and Return Value
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C Recursion
§ A function that calls itself is known as a
recursive function
§ And, this technique is known as recursion
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How Recursion Works
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Recursion Example
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Explanation:
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Storage Class
§ Storage class determines the scope, visibility and
lifetime of a variable.
There are 4 types of storage class:
§ automatic
§ external
§ static
§ register
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Storage Class: Automatic/Local
§ The variables declared inside a block are automatic
or local variables
§ The local variables exist only inside the block in
which it is declared
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Storage Class: Automatic (Example)
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Storage Class: External/Global
§ Variables that are declared outside of all functions
are known as external or global variables
§ They are accessible from any function inside the
program
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Storage Class: External (Example)
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Storage Class: Register
§ The “register” keyword is used to declare register
variables
§ Scope of a register variable is local to the block in
which it is defined
§ Lifetime is till control remains within the block in
which the register variable is defined
§ Register variables tell the compiler to store the
variable in CPU register instead of memory
§ Frequently used variables are kept in registers and
they have faster accessibility
§ We can never get the addresses of these variables.
§ Register can not be used with static
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Storage Class: Accessing Address of
Register
§ If you use & operator with a register variable then
compiler may give an error or warning
§ (depending upon the compiler you are using),
§ because when we say a variable is a register,
§ it may be stored in a register instead of memory
and accessing address of a register is invalid
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Storage Class: Register with pointer
variables
§ A register can have address of a memory location.
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Storage Class: Register not with
static
§ C doesn’t allow multiple storage class specifiers for
a variable.
§ So, register can not be used with static
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Storage Class: Register only within
a block
§ It can not be used in the global scope (outside
main)
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Storage Class: Static
§ A static variable is declared by using the static
keyword
For example:
static int i;
§ The value of a static variable persists until the end
of the program
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Storage Class: static (Example)
Output:
6 11
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Thank You
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References
https://www.programiz.com/c-programming/c-storage-class
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/understanding-register-keyword/
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/register-keyword-in-c
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