C Primer Plus®, Third Edition

Chapter Summary

Use functions as building blocks for larger programs. Each function should have a single, well-defined purpose. Use arguments to communicate values to a function, and use the keyword return to communicate back a value. If the function returns a value not of type int, then you must specify the function type in the function definition and in the declaration section of the calling function. If you want the function to affect variables in the calling function, use addresses and pointers.

ANSI C offers function prototyping, a powerful C enhancement that allows compilers to verify that the proper number and types of arguments are used in a function call.

A C function can call itself; this is called recursion.