Thread: How to get rid of an unwanted function return value?

Hello. The function square() in my program is returning a "0"
after each time it is called. I understand why it is doing it,
but I don't know how to tell it that I don't want it to do it.
For example this is what the output looks like:
x = 1, a = 3
Y is equal to 1.75
Y is equal to 1.73214
Y is equal to 1.73205
Y is equal to 1.73205
0
.... on and on, for each value of x and a that I have assigned.

What I don't want is that 0 at the bottom.

What the program does is it uses a divide and average
algorithm to find the square of a number.
I like what I have so far
but I am wondering if I used the wrong kind of loop for the problem at hand.
The reason I chose to do it this way is because
using the cout statements like I did is the way I
am most familiar with to get values to the program
without having to manually enter them.
And the only way I know how to do it that way is by using a function to assign the values to.
Essentially I have two questions:
1. Can that 0 be gotten rid of, or atleast put some
meaningful data in its place....
or 2. Am I just plain going about this the wrong way?

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <cmath>

using namespace std;

double x;  // initial approximation
double a;  // number that I am looking for the square root of.
double y;  // answer
double g;  // x - a/x

const double errorAllow = 1.0e-5;  // this is the control number to stop the while loop.
double square(double x, double a); // function to do the actual number munching.

int main()
{

    cout << square(1.0, 3.0) << "\n";   // give the program some numbers to play with
    cout << square(10.0, 3.0) << "\n";  // However, this style has an unwanted behavior
    cout << square(0.01, 3.0) << "\n";  // of displaying a zero after each loop is 
    cout << square(100.0, 3.0) << "\n"; // completed. 
    cout << square(1.0, 4.0) << "\n";
    cout << square(2.0, 4.0) << "\n";
}

 double square(double x, double a) 
 {	
    cout << "x = " << x << ", a = " << a << "\n"; // lets the user know what numbers are being used.
	y = (x + a/x) / 2;  // init a value for x,y, and g for the while loop to work with.                          
          x = y;
    g = x - a/x;
    if (g == 0)         
	cout << "x is a perfect square of a!\n";
	
	while (g >= errorAllow)
	{
	x = y;
	y = (x + a/x) / 2;
        g = x - a/x;
	cout << "Y is equal to " << y << "\n";
	//return x,y;   // NOT BEING VERY USEFUL!		
	}	
	 return 0;
 }

 /* this code was to manually enter in values for x and a 
 ** for debugging, I moved it here to get it out of my way */

	/*	cout << "Enter a value for x: " << x <<"\n";
	cin >> x;
	cout << "\nEnter a value for a: " << a <<;
	cin >> a; */

Store the return value of the function in a variable. If the value is 0 don't output, otherwise output the variable.

Code:

double result;
...
if( (result = square(1.0,3.0)) != 0.0 ) cout << result << '\n';
if( (result = square(10.0,3.0)) != 0.0 ) cout << result << '\n';
...
...
etc. etc.

Your square() function always returns zero!

This...

Code:

cout << square(1.0, 3.0) << "\n";

... Will print whatever square() returns. (zero)

I think you want to return y.

A function can only return ONE value. This wont work...

Code:

return x,y;

... You can use pointers or references (which you may not have learned yet) if you need to "affect" more than one variable.

And REALLY, you are computing a SQUARE ROOT, NOT A SQUARE!!!! (You can abbreviate it as "root", but not as square.)
The square of 2 is 4, the square root of 4 is 2... But I think you knew that.

[EDIT] -
... And I'm assuming that you want to "roll your own" algorithm. There is a sqrt() as well as pow() function in the <math> header file.

Code:

#include <math>

double sqrt( double num ); // returns square root.
double pow( double base, double exp );  // returns base to the exp power

You can also get a square root by raising a number to the one-half power:

x = pow(y, 0.5); // x = the square root of y
x = pow(y, 0.333); // x = (approximate) cube-root of y
x = pow(y, 0.25); // x = 4th root of y

Thanks for the input. I fixed it up, using abit from each of you. I moved the "return y" statement to where the "return 0" statement was, and then added text to the cout's so that when the program executes it displays:
x = 1, a = 3
Y is equal to 1.75
Y is equal to 1.73214
Y is equal to 1.73205
Y is equal to 1.73205
The square root of 3 is: 1.73205


No more 0. Cool. Thanks.