Using a function (question)

[mitrious]

I created this function(it works if I put all this into the program) but I can't seem to use the value I get there (the size of a string) in my program... how can I call it and use the values I calculated here

string::size_type ssiz(const vector<string>& sz)
{
	typedef vector<string>::size_type st_sz;
	st_sz s = sz.size();
	st_sz w = sz.size() - 2;
	st_sz y = sz.size() - 1;
	for(st_sz c = 0; c != s; ++c){
		if(sz[y].size() > sz[w].size() || sz[y].size() == sz[w].size()){
			w -= 1;
			c += 1;
		}else{
			y = w;
			w -=1;
			c +=1;
		}
	}

	return sz[y].size();
}