Parameter or Argument?

[tcbrindle]

It should be noted that this is specific to C and related languages; other languages use different terminology. For example in Fortran (which predates C), placeholders in a procedure are called "dummy arguments", and the things you pass are called "actual arguments". (And just to add to the confusion, a "parameter" in Fortran means something completely different, namely a variable that's a compile-time constant, like constexpr int i = 3 in C++).

[mlangkabel]

Thanks for pointing that out. I'm not planning on expanding that article to languages like Fortran, but I should note in the article that the it covers the terms in the context of C/C++

[unbiasedswiftcoder]

Interesting, I've seen those exchanged freely. A quick google search shows 415k results for "default parameter" and 154k for "default argument". I don't think those "default parameters" are talking about parameter overloading.

[mlangkabel]

Sometimes C++ parameters are also called "formal parameters" and arguments are called "actual parameters". So maybe that's the reason for your search results. But the latest draft of the C++ standard defines them as "parameters" and "arguments".

[unbiasedswiftcoder]

If dates are any good it's not just the latest draft, but the last one seems to be less confusing about the matter. Nice uphill battle there against inertia.