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What is pass by value in c functions?

Updated: 8/21/2019
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Pass by value is a semantic that describes the way in which the actual argument in the calling code is assigned to the corresponding formal argument of the function being called. In pass by value, the actual argument and the corresponding formal argument are independent of each other; changing the value of the formal argument has no effect whatsoever upon the actual argument's value. In other words, the function receives a copy of the actual argument's value, never the actual argument itself.

In C, all arguments are passed by value. However, when the formal argument is declared a pointer, we are effectively declaring a pass by reference semantic. The formal and actual arguments are still independent of each other (the formal argument's pointer value can still be changed without affecting the actual argument's pointer value), but if the formal argument and the actual argument both refer to the same object, changing that object's value via the function changes the same value in the caller.

Pass by reference is useful when the value being passed is large or complex and cannot be implicitly or easily copied, such as an array or data structure. Pass by reference can also be used to return a value to the caller via an "output parameter", thus allowing a function to return more than one value.

[Object-oriented programmers will detest the use of output parameters, citing bad programming practice (or poor style), but in C, it is not only desirable to use them to maintain efficiency, it is largely unavoidable. Object-oriented languages have highly efficient move constructors and move assignment operators, but C does not and copying large structures unnecessarily is detrimental to performance.]

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Q: What is pass by value in c functions?
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