Why Does a Function with two differing variable types work?

[Delgeo]

Hi all, why does this work? the function type i wrote is int, but i have a string in the argument area? Sorry for the Noob question.. Can you help me understand a bit better?

  // EduFunction_Class.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application.
//

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int display_int(int numbr, string chr) // You can transfer both int and Char in one Function and more. 
									   //Despite the fact that string is in the int display_int function
{
									//Multiple arguments can be created here......
	cout << endl << numbr; // only use what is in the funtion unless you need to calculate here.
	cout << endl << chr; // only add to the string using another string variable if you wish to extend.
	cout << endl;
	return 0; // can i return this to main?? "Use another funtion to explore...?"
}


int main()
{
	int number = 15;
	string cr = "99 Clearly numbers can be strings too!";

	display_int(number,cr); // see funtion for output display.

	cin.ignore(); // doesn't allow any key to end an app though...

	//system("pause"); // cheat for pause.
    return 0;
}

[SamuelAdams]

main() is a function and can have any number of variables

[MikeyBoy]

Hi all, why does this work? the function type i wrote is int, but i have a string in the argument area? Sorry for the Noob question.. Can you help me understand a bit better?

The function type tells you what kind of value the function returns.

That is completely unrelated to the types of the arguments the function takes.

[icy1]

Here's an example to help you visualize a common pattern of returning a status: 'true' if a function call succeeds or 'false' if it fails.

Since functions return one thing, if you'd like both a status and function-related output, use outgoing parameters. In C++ these are typically references (but could also be pointers). [ Related but not shown here: to denote that a reference will be read-only and not modified, add the keyword const ]

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

// Performs a/b division, stored in result
// Returns true if successful; false if b is 0
bool Divide(double a, double b, double& result)
{
    if (b==0)
        return false;
    result = a/b;
    return true;
}
    
int main() 
{
    double result;
    double a = 5;
    cout << boolalpha;
    bool success;
    for (int b=0; b<=5; ++b)
    {
        success = Divide(a, b, result);
        cout << a << '/' << b << ".  Success? " << success;
        if (success)
            cout << "  Result: " << result;
        cout << endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

5/0.  Success? false
5/1.  Success? true  Result: 5
5/2.  Success? true  Result: 2.5
5/3.  Success? true  Result: 1.66667
5/4.  Success? true  Result: 1.25
5/5.  Success? true  Result: 1

Another common status pattern is to return an integer: often it's 0 on success or non-zero on fail (just like int main());