C Programming – Functions (Part-II)
In this tutorial you will learn about C Programming – Functions (Part II) Nesting of functions, Recursion, Functions and arrays, The scope and lifetime of variables in functions, Automatic variables, External variables, Multi-file programs, Static variables and Register variables.
Nesting of functions:
C permits nesting of two functions freely. There is no limit how deeply functions can be nested. Suppose a function a can call function b and function b can call function c and so on. Consider the following program:
main()
{
int a,b,c;
float ratio();
scanf(“%d%d%d”,&a,&b,&c);
printf(“%f\n”,ratio(a,b,c));
}
float ratio(x,y,z)
int x,y,z;
{
if(difference(y,z))
return(x/y-z));
else
return(0,0);
}
difference(p,q)
{
int p,q;
{
if(p!=q)
return(1);
else
return(0);
}
the above program calculates the ratio a/b-c;
and prints the result. We have the following three functions:
main()
ratio()
difference()
main reads the value of a,b,c and calls the function ratio to calculate the value a/b-c) this ratio cannot be evaluated if(b-c) is zero. Therefore ratio calls another function difference to test whether the difference(b-c) is zero or not.
Recursion:
Recursive function is a function that calls itself. When a function calls another function and that second function calls the third function then this kind of a function is called nesting of functions. But a recursive function is the function that calls itself repeatedly.
A simple example:
main()
{
printf(“this is an example of recursive function”);
main();
}
when this program is executed. The line is printed reapeatedly and indefinitely. We might have to abruptly terminate the execution.
Functions and arrays:
We can pass an entire array of values into a function just as we pass indiviual variables. In this task it is essential to list the name of the array along with functions arguments without any subscripts and the size of the array as arguments
For example: The call
Largest(a,n);
Will pass all the elements contained in the array a of size n. the called function expecting this call must be appropriately defined. The largest function header might look like:
float smallest(array,size);
float array[];
int size;
The function smallest is defined to take two arguments, the name of the array and the size of the array to specify the number of elements in the array. The declaration of the formal argument array is made as follows:
float array[];
The above declaration indicates to compiler that the arguments array is an array of numbers. It is not necessary to declare size of the array here. While dealing with array arguments we should remember one major distinction. If a function changes the value the value of an array elements then these changes will be made to the original array that passed to the function. When the entire array is passed as an argument, the contents of the array are not copied into the formal parameter array instead information about the address of the array elements are passed on to the function. Therefore any changes introduced to array elements are truly reflected in the original array in the calling function.
The scope and lifetime of variables in functions:
The scope and lifetime of the variables define in C is not same when compared to other languages. The scope and lifetime depends on the storage class of the variable in c language the variables can be any one of the four storage classes:
1. Automatic Variables
2. External variable
3. Static variable
4. Register variable.
The scope actually determines over which part or parts of the program the variable is available. The lifetime of the variable retains a given value. During the execution of the program. Variables can also be categorized as local or global. Local variables are the variables that are declared within that function and are accessible to all the functions in a program and they can be declared within a function or outside the function also.
Automatic variables:
Automatic variables are declared inside a particular function and they are created when the function is called and destroyed when the function exits. Automatic variables are local or private to a function in which they are defined by default all variable declared without any storage specification is automatic. The values of variable remains unchanged to the changes that may happen in other functions in the same program and by doing this no error occurs.
/* A program to illustrate the working of auto variables*/
#include
void main()
{
int m=1000;
function2();
printf(“%d\n”,m);
}function1()
{
int m=10;
printf(“%d\n”,m);
}
function2()
{
int m=100;
function1();
printf(“%d\n”,m);
}
A local variable lives through out the whole program although it accessible only in the main. A program with two subprograms function1 and function2 with m as automatic variable and is initialized to 10,100,1000 in function 1 function2 and function3 respectively. When executes main calls function2 which in turns calls function1. When main is active m=1000. But when function2 is called, the main m is temporarily put on the shelf and the new local m=100 becomes active. Similarly when function1 is called both previous values of m are put on shelf and latest value (m=10) become active, a soon as it is done main (m=1000) takes over. The output clearly shows that value assigned to m in one function does not affect its value in the other function. The local value of m is destroyed when it leaves a function.
External variables:
Variables which are common to all functions and accessible by all functions of aprogram are internal variables. External variables can be declared outside a function.
Example
int sum;
float percentage;
main()
{
…..
…..
}
function2()
{
….
….
}
The variables sum and percentage are available for use in all the three functions main, function1, function2. Local variables take precedence over global variables of the same name.
For example:
int i = 10;
void example(data)
int data;
{
int i = data;
}main()
{
example(45);
}
In the above example both the global variable and local variable have the same name as i.
The local variable i take precedence over the global variable. Also the value that is stored in integer i is lost as soon as the function exits.
A global value can be used in any function all the functions in a program can access the global variable and change its value the subsequent functions get the new value of the global variable, it will be inconvenient to use a variable as global because of this factor every function can change the value of the variable on its own and it will be difficult to get back the original value of the variable if it is required.
Global variables are usually declared in the beginning of the main program ie., before the main program however c provides a facility to declare any variable as global this is possible by using the keyword storage class extern. Although a variable has been defined after many functions the external declaration of y inside the function informs the compiler that the variable y is integer type defined somewhere else in the program. The external declaration does not allocate storage space for the variables. In case of arrays the definition should include their size as well. When a variable is defined inside a function as extern it provides type information only for that function. If it has to be used in other functions then again it has to be re-declared in that function also.
Example:
main()
{
int n;
out_put();
extern float salary[];
……
…..
out_put();
}void out_put()
{
extern float salary[];
int n;
….
…..
}
float salary[size];
a function when its parameters and function body are specified this tells the compiler to allocate space for the function code and provides type info for the parameters. Since functions are external by default we declare them (in calling functions) without the qualifier extern.
Multi-file programs:
Programs need not essentially be limited into a single file, multi-file programs is also possible, all the files are linked later to form executable object code. This approach is very useful since any change in one file does not affect other files thus eliminating the need for recompilation of the entire program. To share a single variable in multiple programs it should be declared, as external variables that are shared by two or more files are obviously global variables and therefore we must declare them accordingly in one file and explicitly define them with extern in other file. The example shown below illustrates the use of extern declarations in multi-file programs
File1.c
main()
{
extern int j;
int k;
}function1()
{
int z;
…
….
}
file2.cfunction2()
{
int k;
}
function3()
{
int num;
…
….
}
the function in main file1 reference the variable j that is declared as global in file 2. Here function1() cannot access j if the statement extern int k is places before main then both the functions could refer to j. this can also be achieved by using extern int j statement inside each function in file1.
The extern specifier tells the compiler that the following variables types and names have already been declared elsewhere and no need to create storage space for them. It is the responsibility of the linker to resolve the reference problem. It is important to note that a multi-file global variable should be declared without extern in one of the files.
Static variables:
The value given to a variable declared by using keyword static persistes until the end of the program.
A static variable is initialized only once, when the program is compiled. It is never initialized again. During the first call to stat in the example shown below x is incremented to 1. because x is static, this value persists and therefore the next call adds another 1 to x giving it a value of 2. The value of x becomes 3 when third call is made. If we had declared x as an auto then output would here been x=1 all the three times.
main()
{
int j;
for(j=1;j<3;j++)
stat();
}
stat();
{
static int x=0;
x=x+1;
printf(“x=%d\n”,x);
}
Register variables:
A variable is usually stored in the memory but it is also possible to store a varible in the compilers register by defining it as register variable. The registers access is much faster than a memory access, keeping the frequently accessed variables in the register will make the execution of the program faster.
This is done as follows:
register int count;
Since only a few variables can be placed in a register, it is important to carefully select the variables for this purpose. However c will automatically convert regisdter variables into normal variables once the limit is exceeded.
Swamy Kotipalli's 