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Sidetrack: Defining New Data Types (cont)

Reasons to use typedef:
  • give meaningful names to value types   (documentation)
    • is a given number Temperature, Dollars, Volts, …?
  • allow for easy changes to underlying type 

    typedef float Real;
Real complex_calculation(Real a, Real b) {
	Real c = log(a+b); … return c;
}

  • "package up" complex type definitions for easy re-use
    • many examples to follow; Matrix is a simple example