-----------------------------------

Naveg

Wed Oct 12, 2005 4:04 pm


Unspecified number of parameters for a function?

-----------------------------------

Are there any languages that support an unspecified number of parameters for a method? For all I know it may be a concept that exists in every language that I just have not yet reached in my studies. Take for example method lowestCommonMultiple which, as the name suggests, finds the lowest common multiple of given numbers. Now, it would be typical to set the parameters of this method as (int firstNumber, int secondNumber) - at my level anyhow - but what if one wished to find the LCM of more than 2 numbers (ie. an unspecified number of arguments)? Is there a way to do this?

I am sure this is possible, and I have a feeling it has to do with concepts I haven't gotten to yet, like recursion, but I'm not sure. If someone could clear this up I would appreciate it.


-----------------------------------

wtd

Wed Oct 12, 2005 4:09 pm



-----------------------------------

Perl, Python, and Ruby handle this with remarkable ease.

def lowest_common_multiple(*numbers)
   # code here
end

puts lowest_common_multiple(1, 4, 6, 3, 9, 8, 21, 53)


-----------------------------------

Naveg

Wed Oct 12, 2005 4:11 pm



-----------------------------------

And what of a language like - your favourite - Java? Or C++ if you'd prefer. Is there any relatively easy way to do this is such languages?


-----------------------------------

wtd

Wed Oct 12, 2005 4:18 pm



-----------------------------------

If you're using Java 1.5.0 it is possible.  A quick example:

public class Test 
{
   public static void main(String

Give me a few minutes to whip up the equivalent C++ code.


-----------------------------------

wtd

Wed Oct 12, 2005 4:31 pm



-----------------------------------

#include 
#include 

void print_all(int num, ...)
{
   va_list ap;
   va_start(ap, num);

   int arg;

   while (num--)
   {
      arg = va_arg(ap, int);
      std::cout