C Function Declarations

C function declarations

Created By: chatGPT

In C, a function declaration specifies the function's return type, its name, and its parameters. This tells the compiler about the function's name, the types of its parameters, and the return type, allowing calls to the function to be made more flexibly. A simple function declaration follows this format:

return_type function_name(parameter_type1 parameter_name1, parameter_type2 parameter_name2) {
    // function body
}

For example, if we have a function that adds two integers, it would be declared as follows. Notice that the types of parameters are specified, which helps in type checking during compilation:

int add(int a, int b);

If we want to declare a function that returns a float and takes two float parameters, we would do it like this:

float multiply(float x, float y);

Function declarations are usually placed in header files (.h files) to allow code reuse across multiple source files. This makes the code more organized and manageable:

// my_functions.h
int add(int a, int b);
float multiply(float x, float y);

Lastly, it is important to note that function declarations can also include more complex types, such as pointers or structures. For example, a function that receives a pointer to an integer and returns a pointer to a float can be declared like this:

float* process(int* inputArray, int size);