Question

I’ve a problem with the returned value of a C function.

I’ve a main function in which I call the function “send” in this way;

int go_On;
go_On = send(VOTE_REQUEST, 1);

The “send” function is composed as follows:

int send(int msg, int flag) {

  // inizialization of some parameters;

  if (msg == VOTE_REQUEST) {

    // Do some operations...

    result = send(VOTE_COMMIT, 1);
  }
  else if (msg == VOTE_COMMIT) {

    // Do some other operations...

    return 10;
  }
}

where VOTE_REQUEST and VOTE_COMMIT are constants declared at the beginning of the file.

The problem is that the returned value go_On is 1 instead of 10.
I think that the problem arises by the fact that I call the “send” function inside itself. In fact, if I put

return 10;

before the line

result = send(VOTE_COMMIT, 1);

go_On assumes the correct value 10.
Is the call of the “send” function inside itself the source of the problem? How can I solve it so that the returned value becomes 10?

Thanks to everybody who will help me.

Answer 1

You need to return the value from the recusive call.
If you send something else than VOTE_REQUEST or VOTE_COMMIT into the function you should return an error value like -1:

int send(int msg, int flag) {

  // inizialization of some parameters;

  if (msg == VOTE_REQUEST) {

    // Do some operations...

    return send(VOTE_COMMIT, 1);
  }
  else if (msg == VOTE_COMMIT) {

    // Do some other operations...

    return 10;
  }

  return -1;
}