Function arguments

Most function declarations include one or more function arguments. Function arguments are declared after the name of the function between parentheses.

  • Each argument declaration contains the type and the name of the argument. Within the formula, the argument can be used just like a normal variable. Function arguments can be of type bool, int, float, complex, color and object. You cannot pass an entire array as a function argument, but you can of course pass individual array elements. To pass an entire array, wrap it in an object (see the array wrapper classes in common.ulb).
  • Optionally, the const keyword can be put before the type of the argument. This tells the compiler that the function will not change the value of the argument, which can make calling the function more efficient (currently this matters only for float, complex, and color arguments).
  • Sometimes, a function needs more than one return value. In this case, you can declare a by-reference argument with a & symbol before the name. Such an argument is passed by reference, instead of by value, which enables the function to write a value back to it that the caller will receive.
  • Objects are always passed by reference, so it is almost never needed to use the & symbol with object arguments. You should use it only in case you want a function to be able to actually change the object variable owned by the caller.

Examples: 

  complex func square(const complex x)  ; Squares x and returns the result.    return x * x  endfunc    func square2(complex &x)  ; Squares x and returns the result in x.    x = x * x  endfunc    bool func isPowerOfTwo(int value, int &powerOfTwo)  ; Checks if value is a power of 2, such as 32 or 64. If so, returns true  ; and returns the power of two in powerOfTwo. Otherwise returns false.    powerOfTwo = 0    if value > 0      int mask = 1      int i = 0      while i < 31        if value == mask          powerOfTwo = i          return true        endif        mask = mask * 2        i = i + 1      endwhile    endif    return false  endfunc    ; Examples of how to call these functions:  complex c = (2, 0)  c = square(c)  ; c = (4, 0)  square2(c)     ; c = (16, 0)  int pow  if isPowerOfTwo(64, pow)    ; pow = 6 here, because 2^6 = 64.    ...  endif

Next: Classes

See Also
Built-in functions
Methods

Function arguments