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Unit 3 covers functions in programming, detailing their structure, including the main function, function prototypes, declarations, definitions, and various types of function calls such as call by reference and return by reference. It also discusses advanced concepts like inline functions, default arguments, and function overloading. The unit aims to equip learners with a comprehensive understanding of functions and their significance in structured programming.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
19 views18 pagesFunctions
Unit 3 covers functions in programming, detailing their structure, including the main function, function prototypes, declarations, definitions, and various types of function calls such as call by reference and return by reference. It also discusses advanced concepts like inline functions, default arguments, and function overloading. The unit aims to equip learners with a comprehensive understanding of functions and their significance in structured programming.
Uploaded by
HeureuseCopyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
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Unit 3: Functions
Notes
Structure
3.1 Introduction
3.2. The Main Function
2.3 Funetion Prototype
2.4 The Function Declaration
35 Calling the Funetion
351 The Function Definition
352 Eliminating the Declaration
36 Call by reference
37 Return by reference
38 Inline Functions
39 Default Arguments
3.10. Const arguments
3.11 Function overloading
3.42 Friend function
3.13 Virtual function
314 Summary
3.48 Chock Your Progress
3.16 Questions and Exercises
S47 Key Terms
3.18 Further Readings
Objectives
‘After studying this unit, you should be able to
# Understand the function
+ Loam about arguments
+ Understand about reference variable end arguments
# Learn about function overloading
3.1 Introduction
‘A function aroups a number of program statements into a unit and gives it a name. This
unit can then be invoked fram other parts of the program
Functions play an important role in program development. Dividing a program into
functions is one of the major principles of structured programming. Another use of
functions is that they reduce the size of a program by calling and using them at diferent
places in the program. Any sequence of instructions thet appears in a program more
than once is @ candidate for being made into a function. The function's code is stored
once in the memory, even though it is executed many times in the course of the
program. Functions
3.2 The Main Function
‘The main () function is the starting point for the execution of a program,
In G++, the main() retums @ value of type int to the operating system. The
{functions that have a return value should use the retum statement for termination. The
main() function in C+ i, therefore, defined as follows
int maia()
(os
Since the retum type of function is int by default, the keybord int in the main()
header is optional, But it is good programming practice to actually return a value from
main()
An exit value of zero mean that the program run successfully, while a non zero
value means there was a problem. The explicit use of a return(o) statement will
indicate that the program was successfully executed
3.3. Function Prototype
‘The general form of a function is retum-type function-name (parameter list)
© Return-type: specifies the type of data that the function retums.
© Parameter-list comma-separated list of variables names and their associated
types that receive the values of the arguments when the function Is called.
The general form of a parameter daciaration list is
f (type var 1, type 2, -
ox example
£
£ (int a,
3.4 The Function Declaration
‘The most common approach is to declare the function at the baginning of the program
Inthe example program the function asterisk() is declared in the line,
void asterisk()
The declaration tells the compiler that at some later point we plan to present a
function called asterisk’ The keyword void specifies thet the function has no retumn
valuo, and the emply parentheses indicate that it takes no arguments,
3.5 Calling the Function
‘The function is called three times from main(). Each of the three calls looks like this:
asterisk()
This is all we need to call the function: the function name, followed by
parentheses. The syntax of the call is very similar to that of the declaration, except that
61
Notes 62
Notes
‘Object Oriented Programming wit C+
the retumtype is not used. The call is terminated by @ semicolon. Executing the call
statement causes the function to execute, that is, control is transferred to the function,
‘the statements in the function definition are executed, and then cantrol returns to the
statement following the function call
3.6.1 The Function Definition
‘The definition contains the actual code for the function. The definition for asteriski) is:
declarator
The definition consists of a line called the declarator, followed by the function body.
The function body is composed of the statements that make up the function, delimited
by braces. The declarator must agree with the declaration 1¢. it must use the same
function name, the seme argument types in the same order and the same return type
Notice that the declarator is not terminated by a semicolon
When the function is called, control is transferred to the first statement in the
function body. The other statements in the function body are then executed, and when
the closing brace is encountered, control retums to the calling program
3.6.2 Eliminating the Declaration
You can eliminate the function declaration if the function definition appears in the listing
before the first call to the function. For example, we could rewrite our first example
program as follows:
// eliminating fun
# include
at <<"Name
cute"
tcc" Nehax"
using namespace std;
void swapiint &x, int By);
intmain 0)
C
local variable declaration:
10
20,
cout <« "Before swap, value of a " << a << endl
cout << "Before swap, value of b” << b << endl
swapia, b)
cout << "Afler swap, value of a" <
sing namespace std,
double vals] = (10.1, 126, 33.1, 24.1, 50.0);
double& setValues( int |)
{
return vals; //it will retum a reference to the ith element
}
intmain 0)
{
cout << "Value before change” << endl
for (inti=
£
cout <<"vals[" << <<"
yi 5+)
cout << valsfl] << endl
}
setValues(1
sefValues(3) = 708
cout <« "Value after change" <« endl Functions
for (inti= 0, 1<5; 14+)
‘
cout << "vals" << i <<")
cout << vaisfi] << endl
t
return 0
}
Output
Value before change
vals[2] = 33.1
vals[3] = 70.6
valsfa] = 50
3.8 Inline Functions
One of the objectives of using functions in a program is to save memory space, which
becomes appreciable when a function is ikely to be called many times. But, every time
a function is called, it takes a lot of extra time in executing a series of instructions for
tasks such as jumping to the functions, saving registers, pushing arguments into the
stack and returning to the calling function. All these instructions slaw down the program,
(C++ has a solution to solve this problem. To eliminate the costs of calls to small
functions, C++ proposes a new feature called Inline functions. As inline function is @
function that is expanded in line whan it fs invoked. That is, the compiler replaces the
function call with the corresponding function code. Functions that are very short, say
‘one or two statemants, are candidates to be inlined. The inline functions are defined as
follows
line function - header
7 function body
Here's a variation of conversion program that converts weight in pounds to
kilograms:
Jf demonstrates
ine fonetions
65
Notes 86
Notes
(Object Oriented Programmimg with C+
# include
pdtokg() - defini
Line float
on of functio!
‘okg (float pound:
in pounds:";
itoke (pds) :
To make a function inline, the keyword inline is needed in the function definition
inline float pdtokg (float pounds)
In INLINE, we must place the definition of function hefore main(). This is because
the compiler must insert the actual code into the program, not just instructions to call the
function,
Be aware that the inline keyword is actually just a request to the compiler
Somelimes the compiler will ignore the request and compile the function as @ normal
function
3.9 Default Arguments
(C++ aiso allows us to call a function without specifying all its arguments. In such cases,
the function assigns @ default value to the parameter which does not fave a matching
argument in the function call. Defaull values are specified when the function is declared
The compiler looks at the prototype to see how many arguments @ function uses and
alerts the program for possible default values. Here's an example.
J/ demonstrates missing an
default arguments
repehar (); // prints 40
repchar ("+"):
repehar (" =
ax ()
void repchar (char ch, int n)
in; it)
out <
