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@ -374,7 +374,7 @@ Functions are extremely important, no program besides the most primitive ones ca
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Functions are similar to but **NOT the same as mathematical functions**. Mathematical function (simply put) takes a number as input and outputs another number computed from the input number, and this output number depends only on the input number and nothing else. C functions can do this too but they can also do additional things such as modify variables in other parts of the program or make the computer do something (such as play a sound or display something on the screen) -- these are called **[side effects](side_effect.md)**; things done besides computing an output number from an input number. For distinction mathematical functions are called *pure* functions and functions with side effects are called non-pure.
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**Why are function so important?** Firstly they help us divide a big problem into small subproblems and make the code better organized and readable, but mainly they help us respect the [DRY](dry.md) (*Don't Repeat Yourself*) principle -- this is extremely important in programming. Imagine you need to solve a [quadratic equation](quadratic_equation.md) in several parts of your program; you do NOT want to solve it in each place separately, you want to make a function that solves a quadratic equation and then only invoke (call) that function anywhere you need to solve your quadratic equation. This firstly saves space (source code will be shorter and compiled program will be smaller), but it also makes your program manageable and eliminates bugs -- imagine you find a better (e.g. faster) way to solving quadratic equations; without functions you'd have to go through the whole code and change the algorithm in each place separately which is impractical and increases the chance of making errors. With functions you only change the code in one place (in the function) and in any place where your code invokes (calls) this function the new better and updated version of the function will be used.
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**Why are function so important?** Primarily they help us divide a big problem into small subproblems and make the code better organized and readable, but mainly they aid us in respecting the [DRY](dry.md) (*Don't Repeat Yourself*) principle -- this is extremely important in programming. Imagine you need to solve a [quadratic equation](quadratic_equation.md) in several parts of your program; you do NOT want to solve it in each place separately, you want to make a function that solves a quadratic equation and then only invoke (call) that function anywhere you need to solve your quadratic equation. This firstly saves space (source code will be shorter and compiled program will be smaller), but it also makes your program manageable and eliminates bugs -- imagine you find a better (e.g. faster) way to solving quadratic equations; without functions you'd have to go through the whole code and change the algorithm in each place separately which is impractical and increases the chance of making errors. With functions you only change the code in one place (in the function) and in any place where your code invokes (calls) this function the new better and updated version of the function will be used.
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Besides writing programs that can be directly executed programmers also write so called **[libraries](library.md)** -- collections of functions (and possibly similar things like macros etc.) that can be used in other projects. We have already seen libraries such as *stdio*, *standard input/output library*, a standard (official, should be bundled with every C compiler) library for input/output (reading and printing values); *stdio* contains functions such as `puts` which is used to printing out text strings. Examples of other libraries are the standard *math* library containing function for e.g. computing [sine](sine.md), or [SDL](sdl.md), a 3rd party multimedia library for such things as drawing to screen, playing sounds and handling keyboard and mouse input.
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