Question

Consider this code:

struct s { /* ... */ };

void f(struct s x) { /* ... */) /* (1) */
/* or */
void f(const struct s *x) { /* ... */ } /* (2) */

When struct s has a decent size, in which case should we prefer the first form?

Answer 1

Are you asking which is better?

It depends what you are trying to do – the second form with a pointer will be more efficient. But if you just want to pass a value to f and not have to worry about side-effects then you might go with the first signature – as long as the struct is not too large.