(gawk.info)Functions Summary

User-defined Functions
======================

   Functions in `awk' are defined as follows:

     function NAME(PARAMETER LIST) { STATEMENTS }

   Actual parameters supplied in the function call are used to
instantiate the formal parameters declared in the function.  Arrays are
passed by reference, other variables are passed by value.

   If there are fewer arguments passed than there are names in
PARAMETER-LIST, the extra names are given the null string as their
value.  Extra names have the effect of local variables.

   The open-parenthesis in a function call of a user-defined function
must immediately follow the function name, without any intervening
white space.  This is to avoid a syntactic ambiguity with the
concatenation operator.

   The word `func' may be used in place of `function' (but not in POSIX
`awk').

   Use the `return' statement to return a value from a function.

   Note: User-defined Functions.