Function Values

The second mechanism for passing data between routines is the return value of a function. FORTRAN makes a distinction between subprograms that return a value (functions) and those that do not (subroutines), whereas C does not. All C subprograms are functions that return a value (even the main program), although that value may be void. Since it is simply a value that is being returned, the mechanisms for returning scalar numeric values tend to be just that - a value is returned. However, things get more complicated in the case of functions returning things like character variables. This will be discussed further in machine dependencies.