Function vs Procedure

Computer programming is a phase of the software development process. It is considered as a craft, an art, and an engineering discipline that can create a useful software solution to problems encountered by a computer user. In writing computer programs, programmers use a programming language.
Programming language is meant to express the computations made by a computer and to create programs that can control the computer and become a way of communication for man. It has two components: the syntax or form and the semantics or meaning.
These are all stored in the computer’s database which can contain large digital collections of data. This leads to the task of database programming wherein a professional programmer designs and creates a database using database programming languages particularly Oracle’s programming language Structured Query Language (SQL).
The Oracle SQL uses procedures and functions that allow the database to perform even when it is processing certain tasks so the user can have a procedure run or a function run. They are synonymous with methods and subroutines or subprograms that have codes that can be called on from different areas and are parametrized. Functions and procedures execute these codes.

The difference between the two is that a function can return a value while a procedure does not. Creating a function entails having a return statement in it and it is called as a part of an expression. The procedure, on the other hand, only carries out an action or executes a command. An example is the calculation of the area of a circle.
The user can call for the function, it will pass the radius of the circle and will return the area of the circle to the user who called it. With a procedure, the radius of the circle can be passed to it, and it will insert the radius into a table with no data returned to the user who called for it.

Both functions and procedures start with a header to identify them and parameters that are enclosed in parentheses. Functions must always have a return type after the header. Both also have subroutines installed in them which cannot be used by other components of the program. C-based languages only use a function. It is often used for all named code blocks and is the main entry point of every program. Basic-based languages use a procedure. They are mainly procedural and have no entry point.
Summary:

1.A function is a named code block or subroutine that is exclusively used by C-based languages while a procedure is also a named block of code that accepts input, output, or pass-through parameters and is used by Basic-based languages.
2.A function returns a value while a procedure does not.
3.Most programming languages, such as the C-based languages, have a main function that serves as the entry point of a program so they use a function. Basic-based programs do not have entry points and are procedural in their execution so they use a procedure.

Sharing is caring!