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In the function definition f(x) = x*x the variable x is a parameter; in the function call f(2) the value 2 is the argument of the function. Loosely, a parameter is a type, and an argument is an instance. A parameter is an intrinsic property of the procedure, included in its definition.
The argument of a circular function is an angle. The argument of a hyperbolic function is a hyperbolic angle. A mathematical function has one or more arguments in the form of independent variables designated in the definition, which can also contain parameters. The independent variables are mentioned in the list of arguments that the function ...
3 is the actual parameter (the argument) for evaluation by the defined function; it is a given value (actual value) that is substituted for the formal parameter of the defined function. (In casual usage the terms parameter and argument might inadvertently be interchanged, and thereby used incorrectly.)
A function definition starts with the name of the type of value that it returns or void to indicate that it does not return a value. This is followed by the function name, formal arguments in parentheses, and body lines in braces. In C++, a function declared in a class (as non-static) is called a member function or method.
A function call using named parameters differs from a regular function call in that the arguments are passed by associating each one with a parameter name, instead of providing an ordered list of arguments. For example, consider this Java or C# method call that doesn't use named parameters:
A function signature consists of the function prototype. It specifies the general information about a function like the name, scope and parameters. Many programming languages use name mangling in order to pass along more semantic information from the compilers to the linkers. In addition to mangling, there is an excess of information in a ...
Because default arguments' values are "filled in" at the call site rather than in the body of the function being called, virtual functions take their default argument values from the static type of the pointer or reference through which the call is made, rather than from the dynamic type of the object supplying the virtual function's body.
In mathematics and computer science, a higher-order function (HOF) is a function that does at least one of the following: takes one or more functions as arguments (i.e. a procedural parameter, which is a parameter of a procedure that is itself a procedure), returns a function or value as its result. All other functions are first-order functions.