The Waite Group's C++ Primer Plus, Third Edition

Functions and Arrays

So far the sample functions have been simple, using only the basic types for arguments and return values. But functions can be the key to handling more involved types, such as arrays and structures. Let's take a look now at how arrays and functions get along with each other.

Suppose you use an array to keep track of how many cookies each person has eaten at the family picnic. (Each array index corresponds to a person, and the value of the element corresponds to the number of cookies that person ate.) Now you want the total. That's easy to do; just use a loop to add all the array elements. But adding array elements is such a common task that it makes sense to design a function to do the job. Then, you won't have to write ...