Write Great Code, Volume 2

Chapter 16. Functions and Procedures

Since the beginning of the structured programming revolution in the 1970s, subroutines (procedures and functions) have been one of the primary tools software engineers use to organize, modularize, and otherwise structure their programs. Because programmers use procedure and function calls so frequently in their code, CPU manufacturers have responded by attempting to make these calls as efficient as possible. Nevertheless, a procedure or function call (and the associated return) has costs that many programmers don’t consider when creating functions. The inappropriate use of procedures and functions within a program ...