Assignment by the function return value

A function is a statement that can return the result of its execution to its caller. When the function has a data type that is not void, the function is replaced by its returned value, which can then be assigned to a variable of a compatible type.

The returned value may be explicitly assigned to a variable or it may be implicitly used within a statement and discarded at the completion of the statement.

Consider theinchesToFeet()function declaration and definition:

#include <stdio.h>

double inchesToFeet( double );

int main( void )
{
  double inches = 1024.0;
  double feet = 0.0;
  feet = inchesToFeet( inches );
  printf( "%12.3g inches is equal to %12.3g feet\n" , inches , feet );
  return 0;
}

  // Given inches, convert this to feet
  //
double inchesToFeet( double someInches)
{
  double someFeet = someInches / 12.0;
  return someFeet;
}

In this function, we focus on the assignment that occurs at the return...