USER DEFINED FUNCTIONS

IN ‘C’

Prakash Khaire Lecturer, B V Patel Inst. of BMC & IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
Introduction
Strength of ‘C’ language is C functions
●

They are easy to define and use

●

We are very much familiar with main(), printf() &

●

scanf() function

Prakash Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
In this chapter, you will see…
● How a function is designed ?
● How a function is integrated into a program ?
● How two or more functions are put together /
● How they communicate with one another ?

Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
Definition - function
●A set of statements working together with
common goal is known as function.
●Also known as subprograms which are used to
compute a value or perform a specific task.
●They can’t run independently and are always
called by the main() program or by some other
function.
Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
Categories of fucntions
●In ‘C’ language, functions are classified into the
following two categories
●Library functions
●User-Defined functions

●scanf(), printf(), getch(), strlen(), strcmp(),

strcat(), sqrt(), pow() are this are library
functions.
●main() is user-defined functions
Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
User Defined Functions
●User defined functions are self-contained blocks
of statements which are written by the user to
compute or perform a task.
●They can be called by the main program
repeatedly as per the requirement.

Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
Uses of functions
They are very much useful when a block of
●

statements has to be written/executed again and

again.
They are useful when program size are too large
●

and complex.
It works like top-down modular programming technique to
●

solve a problem.
They are also used to reduce the difficulties during
●

debugging a program.
Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
Uses of functions
●The length of a source program can be reduced
by using functions at appropriate places.
●It is easy to locate and isolate a faulty function
for further investigations.
●A function can be used by many other
programs. Thus C programmer can build their
own library.
Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
 Top-down modular programming using
functions
Main
program

Function A Function B Function C

B B
1 1

Prakash Khaire,
B V Patel Inst. of BMC & IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
A MULTI-FUNCTION PROGRAM
void main()
{
printline();
printf(“I love my parents !!!”);
printline();
}
void printline()
{
int I;
for(i=0;i<40;i++)
printf(“-”);
printf(“\n”);
}

Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
ELEMENTS OF USER DEFINED
FUNCTION
Some similarities between functions and
●

variables
●Both functions names and variables are considered
as identifiers and therefore they must follow the rules
for identifiers
●Like variables, functions have type associated with

them
●Like variables, function names and their types must

be declared and defined before they are used in

program
Prakash
Prakash
Lecturer
Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
ELEMENTS OF USER-DEFINED
FUNCTION
●In order to make use of user-defined functions, we need to establish
three elements that are related to functions.
●Function definition
●Function Call

●Function declaration

Prakash Khaire,
B V Patel Inst. of BMC & IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
FUNCTION DEFINITION
●The function definition is an independent program
module that is specially written or implement the
requirements of the function.
●To use this block or function, we need to invoke it at
the required place in the program, known as the
functions
●The program that calls the function is referred to as
the calling program or calling functions
Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
 main()
{
…..
function1();
….
….
function2();
}
function1()
{
…
…
}
function2()
{
…
function1();
}

Prakash Khaire,
B V Patel Inst. of BMC & IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
FLOW OF FUNCTION
● When the program is executed (that is, run) execution always begins at
the first statement in the function main no matter where it is placed in the
program.
● Other functions are executed only when they are called.
● Function prototypes appear before any function definition, so the
compiler translates these first. The compiler can then correctly translate a
function call.
● A function call statement results in the transfer of control to the first
statement in the body of the called function.
● After the last statement of the called function is executed, the control is
passed back to the point immediately following the function call.
● A value-returning function returns a value. Therefore, for value-returning
functions, after executing the function when the control goes back to the
caller, the value that the function returns replaces the function call
statement.
Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
Lecturer B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
FUNCTION DEFINITION
A function definition includes the following
●

elements
●Function name
●Function type

●List of parameters

●Local variable declarations

●A return statement

Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
A general format of function
definition
Function header
datatype functionName(parameter list)
1. function type
{ 2. function name
local variable declarations; 3. formal parameter list
executable statement1;
executable statement2; function body
…
…
return statement returns the value - optional
}

Prakash Khaire,
B V Patel Inst. of BMC & IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
A general format of function
definition
●If no return data type is specified than by default
‘C’ will assume that it is an integer type.
●If the function is not going to return any value then
we have to specify the return type as void.
●Function name follows the rules of identifier.

Prakash Khaire,
B V Patel Inst. of BMC & IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
A general format of function
definition
●Parameter list are list of variables that will
receive the data sent by the calling
program.
●int sum(int a, int b) { ………………… }
●float mul(float x, float y) { ………………. }

Prakash Khaire,
B V Patel Inst. of BMC & IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Calling a function
●A function is called by the calling program using the
function name with the required number of arguments in
parenthesis.
●The function call comes in assignment statement or in an
output statement.
●printf(“%d”,sum(a,b));
●ans = sum(a,b);

A function is called using its name with required number of

●

arguments in paranthesis.
Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
Formal and Actual Arguments
int sum(int, int); //declaration //function definition
void main() int sum(int x, int y)
{
int a=5, b=6,ans; { formal arguments
int val;
ans =sum(a , b);//calling function
actual arguments val = x +y;
return val;
printf(“Answer : %d”,ans); }
}

The argument listed in the function calling The arguments used in the function declaration are
statement are referred to as actual arguments referred as formal arguments
Prakash Khaire,
B V Patel Inst. of BMC
Prakash Khaire, Lecturer & IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
B V Patel Inst. of BMC & IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Formal and Actual Arguments
●The argument listed in the
function calling statement
are referred to as actual
arguments.
●They are the actual values
passed to a function to
compute a value or to
perform a task.
●The agrument used in the
function declaration are
referred as formal
arguments.
●They are simply formal
variables that accepts or
receive the values supplied
by the calling program.

Prakash Khaire,
B VPrakash
Patel Khaire,
Inst. of BMC
B V&Patel
IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
Inst. of BMC & IT, Gopal Vidyanagar
●

Lecturer
Lecturer
Rules of call a function
●Function is called by the main() or any other function
●When the return type of the function is omitted, then by default the
return type will be int.
●A function can return a value any stage of its execution by using more
than one return statements.
●The return statement is omitted if it does not return a value directly to
the calling program.
●Arguments listed can be omitted, but not the paranthesis () following
the function.

Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
Function Declaration or prototype
To match the number and data type of the actual and formal
●

arguments in the calling and called function respectively.

To check this compiler will verify the function declaration or prototype.
●

●data_type function_name(data_type var1, data_type var2,…..,data_type

varn);
●Example

● int sum(int, int);

The prototype declaration is always written above the main() function
●

definition.

Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer
Return values and their types
●We can pass n numbers of values to the called function, but the called
function can only return one value per call.
●The return statement can take one of the following form
●return;

●return(expression);

●The plain return does not return any value

●return statement with expression returns the value of the expression
●There can be more than one return statement if there is use of
conditional statement.

Prakash
Prakash Khaire,
Khaire,
B VVPatel
B Patel Inst.
Inst. of BMC
of BMC & IT,Vidyanagar
& IT, Gopal Gopal Vidyanagar
Lecturer
Lecturer