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1.2     ! bowersj2    1: \label{Calling_Functions}
1.1       bowersj2    2: 
                      3: With variables, you can store strings or numbers. \textbf{Functions} allow
                      4: you to manipulate these strings or numbers. Functions work like mathematical
                      5: functions: They take some number of arguments in, and return one argument,
                      6: usually a number or a string for our purposes. There are a lot of functions
                      7: available in LON-CAPA. You can see a complete list at http://mileva.lite.msu.edu/loncapadocs/homework/homework5.html.
                      8: For now, let's just look at some simple examples.
                      9: 
                     10: %
                     11: \begin{figure}
                     12: \begin{lyxcode}
                     13: \$a~=~-3.0;
                     14: 
                     15: \$b~=~\&sin(\$a);
                     16: 
                     17: \$c~=~\&pow(3.0,~\&abs(\$a));
                     18: \end{lyxcode}
                     19: 
                     20: \caption{Some Function Calls\label{Some Function Calls Figure}}
                     21: \end{figure}
                     22: In the \textbf{Script} block, function names start with \textbf{\&}. Some
                     23: example function calls are shown in figure \ref{Some Function Calls Figure}.
                     24: You can see that functions can take either variables, numbers, or the results
                     25: of other function calls as parameters. The \texttt{\&sin} function returns
                     26: the sine of an angle expressed in radians. \texttt{\&pow} raises the first
                     27: parameter to the power of the second parameter. \texttt{\&abs} returns the
                     28: absolute value of the argument.