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6.1 Subprogram Declarations ¶

• Do not write the in for parameters.

  function Length (S : String) return Integer;
  

• When the declaration line for a procedure or a function is too long to fit the entire declaration (including the keyword procedure or function) on a single line, then fold it, putting a single parameter on a line, aligning the colons, as in:

  procedure Set_Heading
    (Source : String;
     Count  : Natural;
     Pad    : Character := Space;
     Fill   : Boolean   := True);
  

  In the case of a function, if the entire spec does not fit on one line, then the return may appear after the last parameter, as in:

  function Head
    (Source : String;
     Count  : Natural;
     Pad    : Character := Space) return String;
  

  Or it may appear on its own as a separate line. This form is preferred when putting the return on the same line as the last parameter would result in an overlong line. The return type may optionally be aligned with the types of the parameters (usually we do this aligning if it results only in a small number of extra spaces, and otherwise we don’t attempt to align). So two alternative forms for the above spec are:

  function Head
    (Source : String;
     Count  : Natural;
     Pad    : Character := Space)
     return   String;
  
  function Head
    (Source : String;
     Count  : Natural;
     Pad    : Character := Space)
     return String;