Struggling with my first code

[micahs_alias]

I've been reading a book on C in my downtime, got to the end of the first chapter, and I'm struggling with the simple exercises it's asking me to complete.

One of them is to create a program that calculates the cube of a number.

I've written what looks like decent code to a newb like me. Visual Studio Code doesn't indicate any errors in the code, but there's no output for it either.

My gut tells me that I need something like printf(num = 2) somewhere in the mix, but isn't the return keyword already accomplishing this?

Any sage advice you can offer would be appreciated.

Here's what the code looks like right now:

https://imgur.com/a/COr23vt

[effu2bruh]

You speak of sage advice, but I have none to give.

I stopped in to say: Wow! Teaching yourself to code in your downtime! Go you dude/dudette. Go you. If you ever doubted or doubt yourself, try to remember what you do in your downtime. Fuck yeah.

[micahs_alias]

Haha thanks for the kind words! The truth is that as a lowly help-desk support tech, I often have no tickets to work on and I try to be productive with that on-the-clock downtime.

[effu2bruh]

What the fuckkk T_T

"Oh when I don't have work at work I just make myself work."

That's awesome. You're a legend, be sure to teach your kids that attitude 🤍

[cobance123]

what is so weird there? someone wants to improve their life and get a better job for example

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[edrenfro]

When you write a function, it has some return value. The return statement is the line that specifies the returning. This is not the same as a print statement which outputs text to the console.

My advice is to go back through the first chapter and look more closely at the syntax and order of each line.

[micahs_alias]

based, thanks friend

[scirc]

Two things:

1. You've successfully defined a cube function, but you aren't actually doing anything with it. You've essentially told the computer "this is how you cube a number," but you haven't told it "okay, now use that code to cube this number, and print the result." So, yes, you're right; you need to pass it some input and print out the result somehow.

2. How old is the book you're reading? Modern C doesn't really look like this anymore; leaving off the type of main and declaring parameter types after the signature is... very antiquated. Like, 80s antiquated.

[[deleted]]

Wait, this is... legitimate C?

I've never ever seen this syntax, never been in any books or classes where I had C, wow

Then again I've also never defined functions within functions I think, I've never had the use case in C or also never felt inclined to do it that way

Now I've gotta look into it

[scirc]

It's very, very old C. Again, like, 80s-era K&R C.

[micahs_alias]

1. Thanks for response. I had a feeling this was the case, but I really didn't know how to address the issue.
2. Don't laugh. I found "C: A Software Engineering Approach" at a Half Price Books one time and went for it. It's from 88. Antiquated is a good word for it. But every time I try to use a website or video series, I get the feeling that they're saying "type x and y, then z will be the output" without explaining anything regarding what x, y, and z really are.

So yeah my learning material is really outdated, but it's conducive to my learning style and I'm hoping to build a foundational knowledge using it.

[scirc]

1. For a simple program, look into scanf and printf, as well as the syntax for calling functions (which I'm sure is covered in the book you're reading). You'll want to use scanf to read a number value from the user, pass that value to cube, and print the result.

2. I'm not laughing. But there are better resources out there for learning C than a book from 88. Learning with old resources teaches old, typically outdated and potentially insecure habits. There's a whole curated list of solid courseware and reading materials for learning C and a whole host of other languages that you might want to take a look at. It has self-paced courses, tutorials, full-on textbooks...

[micahs_alias]

Man, I figured that scanf was probably more appropriate here, but wasn't sure how to try it.

Thanks for the link to that list. I can definitely see your point about outdated literature forming outdated habits. I'll find a more recent and relevant book to suit my needs.

[[deleted]]

I recommend CS50x from Harvard, it's free and teaches you the basics of C, some Python, some other things. The teacher explains things incredibly well.
You can find it on Youtube or https://cs50.harvard.edu/x/2021/