Function Pointers

Remember pointers? We used them to point to an array of chars then make a string out of them. Then things got more interesting when we learned how to control these pointers. Now it is time to do something even more interesting with pointers, using them to point to and call functions.

Why point to a function?

The first question that may come to your mind is why would we use pointers to call a function when we can simply call a function by its name: function(); - that's a great question! Now imagine the sort function where you need to sort an array. Sometimes you want to order array elements in an ascending order or descending order. How would you choose? Function pointers!

Function Pointer Syntax

void (*pf)(int);

I agree with you. This definitely is very complicated, or so you may think. Let's re-read that code and try to understand it point by point. Read it inside-out. *pf is the pointer to a function. void is the return type of that function, and finally int is the argument type of that function. Got it? Good.

Let's insert pointers into the function pointer and try to read it again:

char* (*pf)(int*)

Again: 1. *pf is the function pointer. 2. char* is the return type of that function. 3. int* is the type of the argument.

Ok enough with theory. Let's get our hands dirty with some real code. See this example:

#include <stdio.h>
void someFunction(int arg)
{
    printf("This is someFunction being called and arg is: %d\n", arg);
    printf("Whoops leaving the function now!\n");
}

main()
{
    void (*pf)(int);
    pf = &someFunction;
    printf("We're about to call someFunction() using a pointer!\n");
    (pf)(5);
    printf("Wow that was cool. Back to main now!\n\n");
}

Remember sort() we talked about earlier? We can do the same with it. Instead of ordering a set in an ascending way we can do the opposite using our own comparison function as follows:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h> //for qsort()

int compare(const void* left, const void* right)
{
    return (*(int*)right - *(int*)left);
    // go back to ref if this seems complicated: http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstdlib/qsort/
}
main()
{
    int (*cmp) (const void* , const void*);
    cmp = &compare;

    int iarray[] = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};
    qsort(iarray, sizeof(iarray)/sizeof(*iarray), sizeof(*iarray), cmp);

    int c = 0;
    while (c < sizeof(iarray)/sizeof(*iarray))
    {
        printf("%d \t", iarray[c]);
        c++;
    }
}

Let's remember again. Why do we use function pointers? 1. To allow programmers to use libraries for different usages -> "Flexibility"

Exercise

Complete the array of pointers to functions and call each function using its pointer from the array. Array of pointers to functions? Yes you can do that!