2 basic questions regarding functions and printing.

[CodedLogic]

Hi everyone,

I have two questions two ask. The first one regarding functions and the second one relates to printing.

Ok so I am reading the online eBook from CocoaLab, BecomeAnXcoder. I am a noob to programming and after reading through a few books this seems to work the best for me, so I'll be using two examples from the book.

The numbers in the comments within the code are used in the book to refer to examples.

Example 1:
------------------------------
Here the author tries to explain that the variable 

Code: (Objective-C)

theRadius

will pass on it's value to the function

Code: (Objective-C)

circleArea()

. And that a second variable within the function is declared,

Code: (Objective-C)

theArea

, in order to store the value of the calculation, which is then supposedly returned.

Code: (Objective-C)

/[5]
circleArea(float theRadius) // [5.1]
{
    float theArea;
    theArea = 3.1416 * theRadius * theRadius;  // pi times r square   [5.4]
    return theArea;
}

My question is I see that the variable

Code: (Objective-C)

theRadius

is declared, but I don't see a value defined for it. I am assuming that after

Code: (Objective-C)

3.1416 * theRadius * the Radius

, which is equal to

Code: (Objective-C)

theArea

,

Code: (Objective-C)

theArea

is then returned to

Code: (Objective-C)

(float theRadius)

, which is then passed on to the function

Code: (Objective-C)

circleArea()

.  So essentially the value of

Code: (Objective-C)

theArea

is just Pi multiplied twice to a variable that doesn't have a defined value, which is the variable

Code: (Objective-C)

theRadius

.

Is this correct?
Sorry if that was a really redundant explanation.

My second question is a lot simpler, I just want to know the difference between

Code: (Objective-C)

%i %d and %f

.

I know that %f is used for float, and that %i is for intergers, but in the book he uses %d? He says d is short for decimals, but he seems to be using them for integers.

See:

Code: (Objective-C)

//[5]
int x, integerToDisplay;
x = 1;
integerToDisplay = 5 + x;
NSLog(@"The value of the integer is %d.", integerToDisplay);

why is %d used instead of %i? and are there any other % with letters that I should know of?

Thank you very much for all your help in advance and sorry if the post comes out looking weird and for any redundant explanations!

Thanks again,

- Danny

[skochan]

%d and %i are the same, they're both used for printing integers.  Heres the term "decimal" refers to base 10.  For example, %x prints a value in hexadecimal (base 16) format.

The value of theRadius is set when the function is called.  It is set to the argument passed to the circleArea function (e.g., if you write circleArea (2.5) then the value of theRadius will be set to 2.5 when the function is called).

By the way, the function needs to have a return type declared; e.g.

Code: (Objective-C)

float theArea (float theRadius)
{
   ...
}

Cheers,

Steve

[CodedLogic]

Thanks for the reply Skochan.

I am sorry if I still misunderstand, but is theRadius a dummy variable, and usually I would just put a number inside the function instead of a variable?

Thanks again,

- Danny

[skochan]

It is a dummy variable, or more commonly known as a formal parameter name.  The actual value passed into the function when it's called is stored inside that parameter.

Steve