Functions

reading

Cyganek section 3.14
Functions from cplusplus.com

As we write increasingly complex code, it becomes helpful to split it apart into functions. This has several advantages:

We can reuse the functionality provided by a function easily
It becomes easier to test the code—we can test each function separately (unit tests)
We can use the functions in other codes
The design process becomes easier if we think of our code in terms of what functions are needed. Then once we layout the flow of the code in terms of the major functions, we can implement them one-by-one.

Quite often in C++ we will split our code into multiple files, but for now we’ll work all within a single file.

Basic Example

Let’s start with a simple example, and then we’ll talk about the structure:

Listing 29 simple_function.cpp

#include <iostream>

double sum(double x, double y);

double sum(double x, double y) {
    return x + y;
}

int main() {

    double m{3.2}, n{4.0};

    std::cout << sum(m, n) << std::endl;
    std::cout << sum(5.0, 5.0) << std::endl;
}

Some things to note here:

We include a forward declaration of the function.
```
double sum(double x, double y);
```
This just tells the compiler the function name, its return type, and what arguments it takes (and their types). There is no function body.

With this declaration, the compiler will now know that anytime we use sum() we need to pass it two double ‘s and it returns a double.

Often, we would put the forward declaration in a header file and the #include it just like we do with the standard C++ headers.

Note that this code will compile even without the forward declaration because we have the actual function definition before it is used. But this is not always possible.
The function definition provides the actual implementation of the function. For our add function, it is:
```
double sum(double x, double y) {
   return x + y;
}
```
The function has its own scope—inside of the function, x and y are in scope and visible, but they are not available outside of the function.
We use return to explicitly return a value to the caller of the function.

Only one return will ever be executed in a function, but the function itself could have multiple returns that are executed depending on conditions inside the function itself.

try it…

Move the function definition to be after main and remove the forward declaration—does the code still compile?
Now instead leave in the forward declaration, but remove the function definition—what happens when you compile now?

Void

It is possible to have a function that doesn’t return anything—in that case we mark it as void.

Also, we can have a function that doesn’t take any arguments. Here’s an example:

void hello();

void hello() {
     std::cout << "hello" << std::endl;
}

Passing by Value vs. Reference

When we write a function like:

void f(double x) {
    // do stuff -- the caller won't see any changes to x
}

and then call it as:

double z{0};
f(z);

The value of z in our caller is copied into the value of x in the function f(). This is a pass-by-value argument (sometimes called value semantics).

Note

C++ uses pass-by-value by default except for C-style arrays, which are passed as a pointer to the first element. This is another reason why you should use std::array for arrays, since it will be clearer in function.

Inside of f() any changes we do to x will not be reflected back to the caller, so z will be unmodified by anything that happens in the function.

Many times this is what we want. But not always. What if we want to allow the function to modify its argument and for those modifications to be reflected to the caller? In this case, we use a reference argument:

void g(double &x) {
    // anything we do to x will be reflected back to the caller
}

Tip

Sometimes, if the object we are passing is big (like a std::vector), then the copy incurred by passing by value is expensive. If we use a reference, then there is no copy, and passing the object is faster.

If we know that we only want the function we are calling to read from the object and not write to it, we can mark the reference as const, like:

void h(const double& x) {
    // x is passed as a reference, but we cannot modify it
}

Here’s an example of different ways to pass data into a function:

Listing 30 function_value_reference.cpp

#include <iostream>

void f1(double x);
void f2(double& x);
void f3(const double& x);

void f1(double x) {
    x *= 2;
}

void f2(double& x) {
    x *= 2;
}

void f3(const double& x) {
    //x *= 2;
}

int main() {

    double a{1};

    std::cout << "initial a = " << a << std::endl;

    f1(a);
    std::cout << "after f1(a) = " << a << std::endl;

    f2(a);
    std::cout << "after f2(a) = " << a << std::endl;

}

SL Algorithms

We looked at some of the algorithms that work on standard C++ containers (like vectors) previously. Now we can look at some more.

Consider std::sort()—you can provide a function to sort that tells it how to do the comparison.

Here’s an example that sorts some strings using the default comparison (alphabetically) and then again with a custom comparison function that sorts by string length:

Listing 31 algorithms_functions.cpp

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>

bool size_compare(const std::string& a, const std::string& b);

int main() {

    std::vector<std::string> titles{"a new hope",
                                    "the empire strikes back",
                                    "return of the jedi",
                                    "the phantom menace",
                                    "attack of the clones",
                                    "revenge of the sith",
                                    "the force awakens",
                                    "the last jedi",
                                    "the rise of skywalker"};

    std::sort(titles.begin(), titles.end());

    for (auto e : titles) {
        std::cout << e << std::endl;
    }
    std::cout << std::endl;

    // now sort by string length

    std::sort(titles.begin(), titles.end(), size_compare);

    for (auto e : titles) {
        std::cout << e << std::endl;
    }
    std::cout << std::endl;

}

bool size_compare(const std::string& a, const std::string& b) {
    return a.size() < b.size();
}

We’ll revisit this yet again when we learn about lambda functions.