Functions in C Programming
A function is a block of statements that performs a specific task. Suppose you are building an application in C language and in one of your program, you need to perform a same task more than once. In such case you have two options –
a) Use the same set of statements every time you want to perform the task
b) Create a function to perform that task, and just call it every time you need to perform that task.
Using option (b) is a good practice and a good programmer always uses functions while writing codes in C.
Types of functions
1) Predefined standard library functions – such as puts(), gets(), printf(), scanf() etc – These are the functions which already have a definition in header files (.h files like stdio.h), so we just call them whenever there is a need to use them.
2) User Defined functions – The functions that we create in a program are known as user defined functions.
Why we need functions in C
Functions are used because of following reasons –
a) To improve the readability of code.
b) Improves the reusability of the code, same function can be used in any program rather than writing the same code from scratch.
c) Debugging of the code would be easier if you use functions, as errors are easy to be traced.
d) Reduces the size of the code, duplicate set of statements are replaced by function calls.
Syntax of a function
return_type function_name (argument list) { Set of statements – Block of code }
return_type: Return type can be of any data type such as int, double, char, void, short etc.
function_name: It can be anything, however it is advised to have a meaningful name for the functions so that it would be easy to understand the purpose of function just by seeing it’s name.
argument list: Argument list contains variables names along with their data types. These arguments are kind of inputs for the function. For example – A function which is used to add two integer variables, will be having two integer argument.
Block of code: Set of C statements, which will be executed whenever a call will be made to the function.
Few Points to Note regarding functions in C:
1) main() in C program is also a function.
2) Each C program must have at least one function, which is main().
3) There is no limit on number of functions; A C program can have any number of functions.
4) A function can call itself and it is known as “Recursion“. I have written a separate guide for it.
C Functions Terminologies that you must remember
return type: Data type of returned value. It can be void also, in such case function doesn’t return any value.
