C - Return values?

[nateuni]

Hi,

In c if I have a return value and do not catch it, will this cause any problems in my program?

Or should I just catch it in some dummy variable and discard it?

In spite of googling.. I can't find any info in how c behaves in this type of situation. Anyone?

Thanks,
Nate

[Dave Sinkula]

Do you generally catch the return value of printf ?

If you don't need to use the return value, you can quietly discard it if you so choose.

[ShawnCplus]

It's syntactically correct and there's really no harm in it except for the fact that its a complete waste since the reason you have a function returning a value is because you want to use it. If you don't want to return a value then a function returns void.

#include <stdio.h>

int add(int x, int y)
{
  return x + y;
}

void print_add (int x, int y)
{
  printf("%d\n", add(x, y));
}

int main()
{
  add(5, 10); // does nothing
  print_add(5, 10); // outputs 15
  return 0;
}

[gerard4143]

Disregarding a return value is harmless. Well with that said I should mention that the return value is lost but if its deemed insignificant then no harm done