C Programming Arrays and Functions [1.0.16]

In C programming, a single array element or an entire array can be passed to a function. Also, both one-dimensional and multi-dimensional array can be passed to function as argument.

Passing One-dimensional Array In Function

C program to pass a single element of an array to function

#include <stdio.h>
void display(int a)
   {
   printf("%d",a);
   }
int main(){
   int c[]={2,3,4};
   display(c[2]);  //Passing array element c[2] only.
   return 0;
}

Output

4

Single element of an array can be passed in similar manner as passing variable to a function.

Passing entire one-dimensional array to a function

While passing arrays to the argument, the name of the array is passed as an argument(,i.e, starting address of memory area is passed as argument).

Write a C program to pass an array containing age of person to a function. This function should find average age and display the average age in main function.

#include <stdio.h>
float average(float a[]);
int main(){
     float avg, c[]={23.4, 55, 22.6, 3, 40.5, 18};
     avg=average(c);   /* Only name of array is passed as argument. */
     printf("Average age=%.2f",avg);
     return 0;
   }
float average(float a[]){ 
     int i;
     float avg, sum=0.0;
     for(i=0;i<6;++i){
       sum+=a[i];
     }
     avg =(sum/6);
     return avg;
}

Output

Average age=27.08

Passing Multi-dimensional Arrays to Function

To pass two-dimensional array to a function as an argument, starting address of memory area reserved is passed as in one dimensional array

Example to pass two-dimensional arrays to function

#include 
void Function(int c[2][2]);
int main(){
   int c[2][2],i,j;
   printf("Enter 4 numbers:\n");
   for(i=0;i<2;++i)
      for(j=0;j<2;++j){
           scanf("%d",&c[i][j]);
      }
   Function(c);   /* passing multi-dimensional array to function */
   return 0;
}
void Function(int c[2][2]){
/* Instead to above line, void Function(int c[][2]){ is also valid */
   int i,j;
   printf("Displaying:\n");
   for(i=0;i<2;++i)
      for(j=0;j<2;++j)
          printf("%d\n",c[i][j]);
}

Output

Enter 4 numbers:

2 3 4 5 Displaying: 2 3 4 5

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