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3.1.1 The basics of the function type

Functions are accessed through function pointers. As has been demonstrated implicitly earlier, every function call basically is nothing but a dereferenced function pointer along with a list of arguments. Take this simple example:

void my_func(string str, int value) { write("The string is '" + str + "' and the value is " + value + ".\n"); return; }

The function is then called, as demonstrated earlier, by giving the function name followed by a list of the arguments within brackets:

e.g. my_func("smurf", 1000);

Now we add the idea of the function type where the address of the function can be taken and assigned to another variable:

e.g. function new_func; new_func = my_func; // or equivalent new_func = &my_func(); my_func("smurf", 1000); // or equivalent new_func("smurf", 1000);

Beware that before the variable new_func has been set to a proper value, it doesn't refer to any function at all. Using it will cause a run-time error.