Would 'byte sendEmail()' be the same as 'void sendEmail()'

Projects Programming
1

I have been looking at some code used in the following example code Arduino Playground - Email and can't find any reference to what is the proper method to be used to document what appears to be a function/subroutine as follows:

byte sendEmail()
{
byte thisByte = 0;
byte respCode;

if(client.connect(server,25) == 1) {
Serial.println(F("connected"));
} else {
Serial.println(F("connection failed"));
return 0;
}

now to me I would usually specify a function / sub-routine by starting off with say 'void sendEmail()'
but when I have tried replacing 'byte' with 'void' it does not compile.

Could someone please explain what the line commencing 'byte...' is really trying to specify ???

I can see that this subroutine is possibly returning a value of '0' or '1' depending on the result of the code running so possibly it is just defining a 'byte' by the name of sendEmail BUT I'd like to see a reference to how it should be used. There is nothing in arduino.cc/reference

Regards all

2

byte byte sendEmail() tells the compiler that the function will return a byte value when it completes - see the line with return 0.

void byte sendEmail() tells the compiler that the function will not return any value

...R

3

As simple as that... Thanks

4

As simple as that... Thanks

No. Robin2's examples have to many bytes in them.

byte someFunction()
{
   return 3;
}

defines a function that returns a byte.

void someOtherFunction()
{
}

defines a function that returns nothing.

The example you post is incorrect in that not all paths actually return a value.