Answer to Question #158343 in C++ for Ashes

Question

The following program uses the same argument and parameter names in both the calling and called functions. Determine whether doing so causes any problem for the compiler.

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

void time(int&, int&); // function prototype

int main()

{

int min, hour;

cout << "Enter two numbers :";

cin >> min >> hour;

time(min, hour);

return 0;

}

void time(int& min, int& hour) // accept two references

{

int sec;

sec = (hour * 60 + min) * 60;

cout << "The total number of seconds is " << sec << endl;

}

Answer 1

The function does not cause problems to the compiler and therefore, will compile and run. The function parameters in time() will only be used as variables to hold the values that will be substituted during function call and thus only local to the function time().

During function call the function will change the memory location of the main function's hour and min variables because they are passed by reference. The similar variables however will not cause any issues.