An array isn’t a “data type” like you’d normally think of one. It is a collection of the same type of data, similar to a List in Python. Behind the scenes, there are a few things you need to know however: In an array, all elements must be of the same data type. When constructed,…
Previously we’ve seen how variables are passed by value. While this works well in many cases, it means that the variable has to be duplicated when it is passed to the function. For large, and/or complicated, variables – like when we start using objects, this can take precious time and resources. However, C++ offers us…
Variables must be declared before they can be used in C++. This is why a lot of developers follow the best practice of defining the variables at the top of a function. Variable Scope By default variables can be used in the function that they are created. This is their scope, is is often referred…
Calling a function has a performance penalty because you have to create variables, specify scope, pause the current variables and push data onto the call stack, just to name a few reasons. C++ allows you to define an inline function, which should be short, to improve the performance. In doing so, the compiler will actually…
C++ has added the ability to have default arguments be defined when you declare your functions. To define a default value, you must specify the parameter name, and then assign it a value. If someone calls this function without passing an argument to the function, the computer will use 20 as the parameter. If they…
In previous examples, we’ve had to write our functions above the place where they are called. However, many developers like to place main as their first function they see, so it’s easier to find. Or they may not know the order that the function will be called. C and C++ allow you to define a…
Overloading a function means that you can create different functions with the same name, as long as their signatures are different. That means that the parameter list must be of a different number and/or data types from one to another. Overloading functions can make reading code much clearer/easier. This way functions that perform the same…
We’ve mentioned that you pass values to a function. This is mostly true. When you pass a hard coded value as your argument, you always pass the value. See the example below. If you pass a primitive data type (int, float, long, double, char, bool – just to name a few examples), you pass by…
