Now, we're going to start one of the most important topics in this whole course, and that's Functions. A reference if you're following the textbook is Chapter 5 especially 5.1. So here's a quote. "A paragraph of coding is a function, Dr. P." We already have used functions all along. We started with our basic beginning program with the function in main (void). Inside that function, which was function with an open brace was the start of the executable program. We've also used standard IO which had functions like printf and scanf, and it was again, an integer function printf and it could have many arguments, actually a variable number of arguments. We've also used the pseudo random number generator function in rand and others. Why are functions so important? They are in effect the paragraph. If you can write a paragraph, you can write an essay. If you can write an essay, you can write a book. So structurally, the paragraph is a big jump. It takes you from the single correct sentence to a coherent set of thoughts. The same is true for function. It takes you from a single statement, understanding that statement like an assignment statement. Or like a call on a function such as printf, and putting it together to achieve some coherent purpose. Functions are important because they are crucial to the reuse of code. They're especially crucial if they exist in libraries. Libraries like standardio.h, standardlive.h, these are universally useful libraries, and we don't have to rewrite them. So we have to understand how to use them. Indeed to be good coder, we have to know how we should be writing code that's reusable. They're a fundamental encapsulation technique. When you have a big piece of code, and nowadays code can be in the tens or even hundreds of millions of lines to produce a big system, you don't start on that all by itself. You break it up into smaller and smaller pieces, that's coding at small pieces encapsulation. A function is a form of encapsulation. It allows you to structure a big piece of code. You structured into a bunch of functions, functions call other functions, and then finally you have the overall function main. Here are some things you should think about when writing functions. A function largely should be able to do one thing well. Think of rand, think of printf, think of square root. This do one thing, they don't move multiple things. You don't have a function that does both square roots and cube root. You keep those things separate. Functions were unwritten should stay with one page of code. Why? Because that's like a paragraph. It's easy to understand, and it's easy to test. So a function is a unit as you can manage to test effectively, and sometimes we want what are called preconditions and postconditions. If we have the right input, we should get the expected output, and that should be something we can properly test. Here's our syntax for a function. We have a types such as int or void. We have a function name, and the function name is a form of documentation like printf, or rand, or main. Then we have a parameter list. This can be an arbitrary comma separated list. These are the parameters passed in, and you've seen that with for example, printf. Then you have the body of the function, which is typically this bracing close what we call block. The block starts with a bunch of declarations if needed, and then a bunch of executable statements. So here's an example, simple example. Void write address, void. So returns nothing. It needs no arguments, and we're going to say printf clause, new line printf north pole. Send a clauses address, close brace. So now, we've encapsulated this idea and we can use it wherever we need it. This is a function definition. It allows us to call the function. How will we call the function? We would just say write_address(); and one could imagine this being called inside main, and then this would execute those two printf's. As I said, it acts as a paragraph. The code is needed repeatedly, it abbreviates, makes it easier to test, and makes it easier to understand big pieces of code. We're going to go on from here, and show in our coding Window several functions and how they work.
