3.2.3 PASSING ARRAYS TO FUNCTIONS

§  Arrays can also be arguments of functions.

§  When an entire array is an argument of a function, only the address of the array is passed and not the copy of the complete array. Therefore, when a function is called with the name of the array as the argument, address to the first element in the array is handed over to the function.

Hence when array is a function argument, only the address of the array is passed to the function called. This implies that during its execution the function has the ability to modify the contents of the array that is specified as the function argument. This is an exception to the rule of passing the function arguments by value.

 

Function declaration with array:

return_type function_name(data_type  array_name[size]);

e.g.

float findaverage(int num, float list[10]);

 

NOTE: An array name with an index number as a function argument will only pass that particular array element’s value, like any other variables, to the function called.