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9.9 Declarations

In general, functions must be declared before they are used. Stan supports forward declarations, which look like function definitions without bodies. For example,

real unit_normal_lpdf(real y);

declares a function named unit_normal_lpdf that consumes a single real-valued input and produces a real-valued output. A function definition with a body simultaneously declares and defines the named function, as in

real unit_normal_lpdf(real y) {
  return -0.5 * square(y);
}

A user-defined Stan function may be declared and then later defined, or just defined without being declared. No other combination of declaration and definition is legal, so that, for instance, a function may not be declared more than once, nor may it be defined more than once. If there is a declaration, there must be a definition. These rules together ensure that all the declared functions are eventually defined.

Recursive functions

Forward declarations allow the definition of self-recursive or mutually recursive functions. For instance, consider the following code to compute Fibonacci numbers.

int fib(int n);

int fib(int n) {
  if (n < 2) return n;
  else return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2);
}

Without the forward declaration in the first line, the body of the definition would not compile.