What's the difference between an argument and a parameter?

Question

When verbally talking about methods, I\'m never sure whether to use the word argument or parameter or something else. Either way the other people know what

Answer 1

The formal parameters for a function are listed in the function declaration and are used in the body of the function definition. A formal parameter (of any sort) is a kind of blank or placeholder that is filled in with something when the function is called.

An argument is something that is used to fill in a formal parameter. When you write down a function call, the arguments are listed in parentheses after the function name. When the function call is executed, the arguments are plugged in for the formal parameters.

The terms call-by-value and call-by-reference refer to the mechanism that is used in the plugging-in process. In the call-by-value method only the value of the argument is used. In this call-by-value mechanism, the formal parameter is a local variable that is initialized to the value of the corresponding argument. In the call-by-reference mechanism the argument is a variable and the entire variable is used. In the call- by-reference mechanism the argument variable is substituted for the formal parameter so that any change that is made to the formal parameter is actually made to the argument variable.