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Assign an identifier, name, to a function; Define formal parameters with a name and data type for each; Assign a data type to the return value, if any; Specify a return value in the function body; Call a function; Provide actual parameters that correspond to a called function's formal parameters; Return control to the caller at the point of call
Parameters are also thought of as either formal or actual. Formal generic parameters are used in the definition of generic classes. In the example below, the class HASH_TABLE is declared as a generic class which has two formal generic parameters, G representing data of interest and K representing the hash key for the data:
In this example the actual parameter for the formal parameter o is always p. As p is a free variable in the whole expression, the parameter may be dropped. The actual parameter for the formal parameter y is always n. However n is bound in a lambda abstraction. So this parameter may not be dropped. The result of dropping the parameter is,
3 is the actual parameter (the argument) for evaluation by the defined function; it is a given value (actual value) that is substituted for the formal parameter of the defined function. (In casual usage the terms parameter and argument might inadvertently be interchanged, and thereby used incorrectly.)
In computer programming, a subroutine (a.k.a. function) will often inform calling code about the result of its computation, by returning a value to that calling code. The data type of that value is called the function's return type. In the C++ programming language, a function must be declared.
A generic formal parameter is a value, a variable, a constant, a type, a subprogram, or even an instance of another, designated, generic unit. For generic formal types, the syntax distinguishes between discrete, floating-point, fixed-point, access (pointer) types, etc. Some formal parameters can have default values. To instantiate a generic ...
The lambda abstraction operator, λ, takes a formal parameter variable and a body expression. When evaluated the formal parameter variable is identified with the value of the actual parameter. Variables in a lambda expression may either be "bound" or "free".
A function signature consists of the function prototype. It specifies the general information about a function like the name, scope and parameters. Many programming languages use name mangling in order to pass along more semantic information from the compilers to the linkers. In addition to mangling, there is an excess of information in a ...