Cambridge (CIE) A Level Your notes
Computer Science
Structured Programming
Contents
Procedures & Functions
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Procedures & Functions
Your notes
What are functions and procedures?
Functions and procedures are a type of sub program, a sequence of instructions that
perform a specific task or set of tasks
Procedures and functions are defined at the start of the code
Sub programs are often used to simplify a program by breaking it into smaller, more
manageable parts
Sub programs can be used to:
Avoid duplicating code and can be reused throughout a program
Improve the readability and maintainability of code
Perform calculations, to retrieve data, or to make decisions based on input
Parameters are values that are passed into a sub program
Parameters can be variables or values and they are located in brackets after the
name of the sub program
Example: FUNCTION TaxCalculator(pay,taxcode) OR PROCEDURE TaxCalculator(pay,taxcode)
Sub programs can have multiple parameters
To use a sub program you 'call' it from the main program
What's the difference between a function and
procedure?
A Function returns a value whereas a procedure does not
Procedures
Procedures are defined using the PROCEDURE keyword in pseudocode
A procedure can be written as:
Pseudocode
PROCEDURE <identifier>() PROCEDURE <identifier>(<param1>:<data type>, <param2>:<data type>...)
<statement(s)> <statement(s)>
ENDPROCEDURE ENDPROCEDURE
The identifier is used to call the procedure
To call a procedure, it can be written as:
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CALL <identifier>()
CALL <identifier>(Value1,Value2,...)
Your notes
When parameters are used, value1, value2... must be of the correct data type and in the
same sequence
Example code
PROCEDURE GreetUser(Name : STRING)
OUTPUT "Hello, ", Name, "!"
ENDPROCEDURE
DECLARE UserName : STRING
OUTPUT "Enter your name: "
INPUT UserName
CALL GreetUser(UserName)
PROCEDURE GreetUser defines the procedure, which takes one parameter: Name
The procedure prints a personalised greeting
The main program asks for the user’s name and then calls the procedure using CALL
Functions
Functions are defined using the FUNCTION keyword in pseudocode or def keyword in
Python
Functions always return a value so they do not use the CALL function, instead they are
called within an expression
A function can be written as:
Pseudocode
FUNCTION <identifier> RETURNS <data type> FUNCTION <identifier>(<param1>:<data type>, <param2>
<statement(s)> <statement(s)>
ENDFUNCTION ENDFUNCTION
Example code
FUNCTION calculate_area(length: INTEGER, width: INTEGER)
area ← length * width
RETURN area
ENDFUNCTION
# Output the value returned from the function
OUTPUT(calculate_area(5,3))
Defines a function called calculate_area
It takes two parameters: length and width, both of type INTEGER
A local variable area is declared and assigned the result of length × width
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The function returns the result to wherever it was called from
Parameter passing Your notes
What is parameter passing?
Parameter passing is the method by which values or references are given to procedures
or functions so they can use or modify data during execution
When writing procedures, you can control how parameters are passed using:
BYVAL – pass a copy of the value (default behaviour)
BYREF – pass the actual variable, so changes inside the procedure affect the original
Keyword What it does
BYVAL Passes a copy of the value (no change to original)
BYREF Passes a reference to the variable (can be modified)
If no keyword is used, it is assumed to be BYVAL
Functions should not use BYREF parameters – only procedures should
Example – Swapping two values (Procedure with BYREF)
PROCEDURE Swap(BYREF X : INTEGER, Y : INTEGER)
DECLARE Temp : INTEGER
Temp ← X
X←Y
Y ← Temp
ENDPROCEDURE
X is passed by reference, so it can be changed
Y is passed by value, so any change to Y inside the procedure does not affect the
original value
Worked Example
A video-conferencing program supports up to six users. Speech from each user is
sampled and digitised (converted from analogue to digital). Digitised values are
stored in array Sample.
The array Sample consists of 6 rows by 128 columns and is of type integer. Each row
contains 128 digitised sound samples from one user.
The digitised sound samples from each user are to be processed to produce a single
value which will be stored in a 1D array Result of type integer. This process will be
implemented by procedure Mix().
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A procedure Mix() will:
calculate the average of each of the 6 sound samples in a column Your notes
ignore sound sample values of 10 or less
store the average value in the corresponding position in Result
repeat for each column in array Sample
The diagram uses example values to illustrate the process:
Write pseudocode for procedure Mix().
Assume Sample and Result are global. [6]
Answer
PROCEDURE Mix()
DECLARE Count, Total ThisNum : INTEGER
DECLARE ThisUser, ThisSample : INTEGER
FOR ThisSample ← 1 TO 128
Count ← 0
Total ← 0
FOR ThisUser ← 1 TO 6
IF Sample[ThisUser, ThisSample] > 10 THEN
Count ← Count + 1
Total ← Total + Sample[ThisUser, ThisSample]
ENDIF
NEXT ThisUser
Result[ThisSample] ← INT(Total / Count)
NEXT ThisSample
ENDPROCEDURE
Declaration and initialisation before inner loop of Count and Total [1 mark]
Outer Loop for 128 iterations [1 mark]
Inner loop for six iterations [1 mark]
Test for sample > 10 in a loop [1 mark]
and if true sum Total and increment Count [1 mark]
Calculate average value and assign to Result array after inner loop and within
outer loop [1 mark]
Use of INT()/ DIV to convert average to integer [1 mark]
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