A First Book of ANSI C—ch07.pptVIP

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, Second Edition A First Book of ANSI C, Fourth Edition A First Book of ANSI CFourth Edition Chapter 7 Modularity Using Functions: Part II Objectives Variable Scope Variable Storage Class Pass by Reference Case Study: Swapping Values Recursion Common Programming and Compiler Errors Variable Scope If variables created inside a function are available only to the function itself, they are said to be local to the function, or local variables Scope is the section of the program where the variable is valid or “known” Variable Scope (continued) Variable Scope (continued) A variable with a local scope has had storage set aside for it by a declaration statement made within a function body A variable with global scope is one whose storage has been created for it by a declaration statement located outside any function Variable Scope (continued) Variable Scope (continued) Program 7.1 produces the following output From main(): firstnum = 10 From main(): secnum = 20 From valfun(): firstnum = 10 From valfun(): secnum = 30 From main() again: firstnum = 40 From main() again: secnum = 20 While a function is executing, only the storage area for the variables and parameters created by this function are automatically accessed Variable Scope (continued) If a variable that is not local to the function is used by the function, the program searches the global storage areas for the correct name The scope of a variable does not influence the data type of the variable Variable Scope (continued) When to Use Global Declarations The scoping rules for symbolic constants and function prototypes are the same as for variables When a symbolic constant has a general meaning that is applicable throughout an application, it makes good programming sense to declare it globally at the top of a source code file Coding a function prototype as a global makes sense when the function is used by a number of other functions in a source code file Doing so avoids repeating the pro