What is standalone function? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
What is the meaning of the term “free function” in C++?

I am not sure what a standalone function is.

Is it inside the class or same as normal function outside the main and class?

Answer 1

A stand-alone function is just a normal function that is not a member of any class and is in a global namespace. For example, this is a member function:

class SomeClass
{
public:
    SomeClass add( SomeClass other );
};
SomeClass::add( SomeClass other )
{
    <...>
}

And this is a stand-alone one:

SomeClass add( SomeClass one, SomeClass two );

Answer 2

A stand-alone function is typically

• A global function which doesn't belong to any class or namespace.
• Serves a single purpose of doing something (like a utility, say strcpy())

They should be used judiciously as too much of those will clutter the code.

Answer 3

A standalone function is one which doesn't depend on any visible state:

int max(int a, int b) { return a > b ? a : b; }

Here max is a standalone function.

Standalone functions are stateless. In C++, they're referred to as free functions.