Chapter 9

Subprograms

ISBN 0-321-49362-1
Chapter 9 Topics

• Introduction
• Fundamentals of Subprograms
• Design Issues for Subprograms
• Local Referencing Environments
• Parameter-Passing Methods
• Parameters That Are Subprograms
• Overloaded Subprograms
• Generic Subprograms
• Design Issues for Functions
• User-Defined Overloaded Operators
• Coroutines

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Introduction

• Two fundamental abstraction facilities

– Process abstraction
• Emphasized from early days
– Data abstraction
• Emphasized in the1980s

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Fundamentals of Subprograms

• Each subprogram has a single entry point

• The calling program is suspended during
execution of the called subprogram
• Control always returns to the caller when
the called subprogram’s execution
terminates

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Basic Definitions

• A subprogram definition describes the interface to and the

actions of the subprogram abstraction
- In Python, function definitions are executable; in
all other languages, they are non-executable
• A subprogram call is an explicit request that the
subprogram be executed
• A subprogram header is the first part of the definition,
including the name, the kind of subprogram, and the
formal parameters
• The parameter profile (aka signature) of a subprogram is
the number, order, and types of its parameters
• The protocol is a subprogram’s parameter profile and, if it
is a function, its return type

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Basic Definitions (continued)

• Function declarations in C and C++ are often

called prototypes
• A subprogram declaration provides the protocol,
but not the body, of the subprogram
• A formal parameter is a dummy variable listed in
the subprogram header and used in the
subprogram
• An actual parameter represents a value or
address used in the subprogram call statement

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Actual/Formal Parameter
Correspondence
• Positional
– The binding of actual parameters to formal parameters
is by position: the first actual parameter is bound to the
first formal parameter and so forth
– Safe and effective
• Keyword
– The name of the formal parameter to which an actual
parameter is to be bound is specified with the actual
parameter
– Advantage: Parameters can appear in any order,
thereby avoiding parameter correspondence errors
– Disadvantage: User must know the formal parameter’s
names

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Formal Parameter Default Values

• In certain languages (e.g., C++, Python, Ruby, Ada, PHP),

formal parameters can have default values (if no actual
parameter is passed)
– In C++, default parameters must appear last because
parameters are positionally associated

• Variable numbers of parameters

– C# methods can accept a variable number of parameters as long as
they are of the same type—the corresponding formal parameter is an
array preceded by params
– In Ruby, the actual parameters are sent as elements of a hash literal
and the corresponding formal parameter is preceded by an asterisk.
– In Python, the actual is a list of values and the corresponding formal
parameter is a name with an asterisk
– In Lua, a variable number of parameters is represented as a formal
parameter with three periods; they are accessed with a for statement
or with a multiple assignment from the three periods

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Ruby Blocks
• Ruby includes a number of iterator functions, which are often used to
process the elements of arrays
• Iterators are implemented with blocks, which can also be defined by
applications
• Blocks are attached methods calls; they can have parameters (in vertical
bars); they are executed when the method executes a yield statement

def fibonacci(last)
first, second = 1, 1
while first <= last
yield first
first, second = second, first + second
end
end

puts "Fibonacci numbers less than 100 are:"

fibonacci(100) {|num| print num, " "}
puts

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Procedures and Functions
• There are two categories of subprograms
– Procedures are collection of statements that
define parameterized computations
– Functions structurally resemble procedures
but are semantically modeled on
mathematical functions
• They are expected to produce no side effects
• In practice, program functions have side effects

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Design Issues for Subprograms

• Are local variables static or dynamic?

• Can subprogram definitions appear in other
subprogram definitions?
• What parameter passing methods are provided?
• Are parameter types checked?
• If subprograms can be passed as parameters and
subprograms can be nested, what is the
referencing environment of a passed
subprogram?
• Can subprograms be overloaded?
• Can subprogram be generic?
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 Local Referencing Environments
• Local variables can be stack-dynamic
- Advantages
• Support for recursion
• Storage for locals is shared among some subprograms
– Disadvantages
• Allocation/de-allocation, initialization time
• Indirect addressing
• Subprograms cannot be history sensitive
• Local variables can be static
– Advantages and disadvantages are the opposite of
those for stack-dynamic local variables

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Semantic Models of Parameter Passing

• In mode
• Out mode
• Inout mode

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Models of Parameter Passing

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Conceptual Models of Transfer

• Physically move a path

• Move an access path

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 Pass-by-Value (In Mode)
• The value of the actual parameter is used to
initialize the corresponding formal parameter
– Normally implemented by copying
– Can be implemented by transmitting an access path but
not recommended (enforcing write protection is not
easy)
– Disadvantages (if by physical move): additional storage
is required (stored twice) and the actual move can be
costly (for large parameters)
– Disadvantages (if by access path method): must write-
protect in the called subprogram and accesses cost
more (indirect addressing)

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Pass-by-Result (Out Mode)
• When a parameter is passed by result, no
value is transmitted to the subprogram;
the corresponding formal parameter acts
as a local variable; its value is transmitted
to caller’s actual parameter when control
is returned to the caller, by physical move
– Require extra storage location and copy
operation
• Potential problem: sub(p1, p1);
whichever formal parameter is copied
back will represent the current value of p1

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Pass-by-Value-Result (inout Mode)

• A combination of pass-by-value and

pass-by-result
• Sometimes called pass-by-copy
• Formal parameters have local
storage
• Disadvantages:
– Those of pass-by-result
– Those of pass-by-value

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Pass-by-Reference (Inout Mode)

• Pass an access path

• Also called pass-by-sharing
• Advantage: Passing process is efficient
(no copying and no duplicated storage)
• Disadvantages
– Slower accesses (compared to pass-by-value)
to formal parameters
– Potentials for unwanted side effects (collisions)
– Unwanted aliases (access broadened)

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Pass-by-Name (Inout Mode)

• By textual substitution
• Formals are bound to an access method
at the time of the call, but actual binding
to a value or address takes place at the
time of a reference or assignment
• Allows flexibility in late binding

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Implementing Parameter-Passing
Methods

• In most language parameter

communication takes place thru the run-
time stack
• Pass-by-reference are the simplest to
implement; only an address is placed in
the stack
• A subtle but fatal error can occur with
pass-by-reference and pass-by-value-
result: a formal parameter corresponding
to a constant can mistakenly be changed
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Parameter Passing Methods of Major
Languages
• C
– Pass-by-value
– Pass-by-reference is achieved by using pointers as parameters
• C++
– A special pointer type called reference type for pass-by-
reference
• Java
– All parameters are passed are passed by value
– Object parameters are passed by reference
• Ada
– Three semantics modes of parameter transmission: in, out,
in out; in is the default mode
– Formal parameters declared out can be assigned but not
referenced; those declared in can be referenced but not
assigned; in out parameters can be referenced and assigned

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Parameter Passing Methods of Major
Languages (continued)
• Fortran 95
- Parameters can be declared to be in, out, or inout mode
• C#
- Default method: pass-by-value
– Pass-by-reference is specified by preceding both a
formal parameter and its actual parameter with ref
• PHP: very similar to C#
• Perl: all actual parameters are implicitly placed in
a predefined array named @_
• Python and Ruby use pass-by-assignment (all
data values are objects)

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Type Checking Parameters

• Considered very important for reliability

• FORTRAN 77 and original C: none
• Pascal, FORTRAN 90, Java, and Ada: it is always
required
• ANSI C and C++: choice is made by the user
– Prototypes
• Relatively new languages Perl, JavaScript, and
PHP do not require type checking
• In Python and Ruby, variables do not have types
(objects do), so parameter type checking is not
possible

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Multidimensional Arrays as
Parameters
• If a multidimensional array is passed to a
subprogram and the subprogram is
separately compiled, the compiler needs
to know the declared size of that array to
build the storage mapping function

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Multidimensional Arrays as
Parameters: C and C++
• Programmer is required to include the
declared sizes of all but the first subscript
in the actual parameter
• Disallows writing flexible subprograms
• Solution: pass a pointer to the array and
the sizes of the dimensions as other
parameters; the user must include the
storage mapping function in terms of the
size parameters

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Multidimensional Arrays as
Parameters: Ada
• Ada – not a problem
– Constrained arrays – size is part of the array’s
type
– Unconstrained arrays - declared size is part of
the object declaration

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Multidimensional Arrays as
Parameters: Fortran
• Formal parameter that are arrays
have a declaration after the header
– For single-dimension arrays, the
subscript is irrelevant
– For multidimensional arrays, the sizes
are sent as parameters and used in the
declaration of the formal parameter, so
those variables are used in the storage
mapping function

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Multidimensional Arrays as
Parameters: Java and C#

• Similar to Ada
• Arrays are objects; they are all single-
dimensioned, but the elements can be
arrays
• Each array inherits a named constant
(length in Java, Length in C#) that is set
to the length of the array when the array
object is created

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Design Considerations for Parameter
Passing

• Two important considerations

– Efficiency
– One-way or two-way data transfer
• But the above considerations are in
conflict
– Good programming suggest limited access to
variables, which means one-way whenever
possible
– But pass-by-reference is more efficient to pass
structures of significant size

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Parameters that are Subprogram
Names
• It is sometimes convenient to pass
subprogram names as parameters
• Issues:
1. Are parameter types checked?
2. What is the correct referencing environment
for a subprogram that was sent as a
parameter?

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Parameters that are Subprogram
Names: Parameter Type Checking
• C and C++: functions cannot be passed as
parameters but pointers to functions can be
passed and their types include the types of the
parameters, so parameters can be type
checked
• FORTRAN 95 type checks
• Ada does not allow subprogram parameters; an
alternative is provided via Ada’s generic facility
• Java does not allow method names to be passed
as parameters

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Parameters that are Subprogram
Names: Referencing Environment
• Shallow binding: The environment of the
call statement that enacts the passed
subprogram
- Most natural for dynamic-scoped
languages
• Deep binding: The environment of the
definition of the passed subprogram
- Most natural for static-scoped languages
• Ad hoc binding: The environment of the
call statement that passed the
subprogram
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Overloaded Subprograms

• An overloaded subprogram is one that has the

same name as another subprogram in the same
referencing environment
– Every version of an overloaded subprogram has a
unique protocol
• C++, Java, C#, and Ada include predefined
overloaded subprograms
• In Ada, the return type of an overloaded function
can be used to disambiguate calls (thus two
overloaded functions can have the same
parameters)
• Ada, Java, C++, and C# allow users to write
multiple versions of subprograms with the same
name

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Generic Subprograms

• A generic or polymorphic subprogram takes

parameters of different types on different
activations

• Overloaded subprograms provide ad hoc

polymorphism

• A subprogram that takes a generic parameter

that is used in a type expression that describes
the type of the parameters of the subprogram
provides parametric polymorphism
- A cheap compile-time substitute for dynamic
binding

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Generic Subprograms (continued)

• Ada
– Versions of a generic subprogram are created
by the compiler when explicitly instantiated by
a declaration statement
– Generic subprograms are preceded by a
generic clause that lists the generic variables,
which can be types or other subprograms

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Generic Subprograms (continued)

• C++
– Versions of a generic subprogram are created
implicitly when the subprogram is named in a
call or when its address is taken with the &
operator
– Generic subprograms are preceded by a
template clause that lists the generic variables,
which can be type names or class names

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Generic Subprograms (continued)

• Java 5.0
- Differences between generics in Java 5.0 and
those of C++ and Ada:
1. Generic parameters in Java 5.0 must be classes
2. Java 5.0 generic methods are instantiated just
once as truly generic methods
3. Restrictions can be specified on the range of
classes that can be passed to the generic method
as generic parameters
4. Wildcard types of generic parameters

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Generic Subprograms (continued)

• C# 2005
- Supports generic methods that are
similar to those of Java 5.0
- One difference: actual type parameters
in a call can be omitted if the compiler can
infer the unspecified type

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Examples of parametric
polymorphism: C++
template <class Type>
Type max(Type first, Type second) {
return first > second ? first : second;
}

• The above template can be instantiated for any

type for which operator > is defined

int max (int first, int second) {

return first > second? first : second;
}

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Design Issues for Functions
• Are side effects allowed?
– Parameters should always be in-mode to reduce side
effect (like Ada)
• What types of return values are allowed?
– Most imperative languages restrict the return types
– C allows any type except arrays and functions
– C++ is like C but also allows user-defined types
– Ada subprograms can return any type (but Ada
subprograms are not types, so they cannot be returned)
– Java and C# methods can return any type (but because
methods are not types, they cannot be returned)
– Python and Ruby treat methods as first-class objects, so
they can be returned, as well as any other class
– Lua allows functions to return multiple values
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User-Defined Overloaded
Operators
• Operators can be overloaded in Ada, C++,
Python, and Ruby
• An Ada example
function "*" (A,B: in Vec_Type): return Integer
is
Sum: Integer := 0;
begin
for Index in A'range loop
Sum := Sum + A(Index) * B(Index)
end loop
return sum;
end "*";
…
c = a * b; -- a, b, and c are of type Vec_Type

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Coroutines
• A coroutine is a subprogram that has multiple
entries and controls them itself – supported
directly in Lua
• Also called symmetric control: caller and called
coroutines are on a more equal basis
• A coroutine call is named a resume
• The first resume of a coroutine is to its beginning,
but subsequent calls enter at the point just after
the last executed statement in the coroutine
• Coroutines repeatedly resume each other, possibly
forever
• Coroutines provide quasi-concurrent execution of
program units (the coroutines); their execution is
interleaved, but not overlapped
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Coroutines Illustrated: Possible
Execution Controls

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Coroutines Illustrated: Possible
Execution Controls

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Coroutines Illustrated: Possible
Execution Controls with Loops

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Summary

• A subprogram definition describes the actions

represented by the subprogram
• Subprograms can be either functions or
procedures
• Local variables in subprograms can be stack-
dynamic or static
• Three models of parameter passing: in mode, out
mode, and inout mode
• Some languages allow operator overloading
• Subprograms can be generic
• A coroutine is a special subprogram with multiple
entries

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