C programming simple question?

i have to find the roots of a second order equation (i.e. 2x^2 +2x +2) I scan in the the coefficients one by one as a variable. The question is how do i pass those variables and there values to another function so i can use them to calculate the roots with the given equations?

I'm not sure I understand your question... if you have variables a, b and c, just pass them into your method like this :

findRoots(a, b, c);

That can't really be your question can it? That is what you asked for....

*** EDIT ***

I think I understand what you're worried about now. You need to be able to return 2 numbers right? Here's how I would do it:
Have the method return an integer status. If it returns 0, it was successful, if it returns anything < 0 no roots existed (imaginary) and if it returns anything > 0, only one root existed. You can pass arguments to it like this:

assuming :
int status, a, b, c;
double root1, root2;

status = findRoots(a, b, c, &root1, &root2);


Then
int findRoots(int a, int b, int c, double *root1, double *root2)
{
//do your calculations
//set root1 and root2 and set a status
return status_code;
}

When you get back to your main(), the root1 and root2 will be updated. This is known as passing parameters by Reference, instead of by value.

/* Program to calculate the roots of a quadratic equation */

#include <stdio.h> /* printf() and scanf() */
#include <math.h> /* sqrt() */

main()
{
double aa, bb, cc, aux, root1, root2;

aa = 1.0;

printf("\nProgram to find the roots of a quadratic equation\n");
printf("of the form a*x*x + b*x + c = 0\n\n");
printf("Entering 0 for the value of a stops the program\n\n");

while ( aa != 0.0 )
{
/* Enter coefficients for equation */
printf("Enter value for a : ");
scanf("%lf", &aa);
if ( aa == 0.0 )
{
/* Exit the while() loop, unless we want a division by 0 */
break;
}
printf("Enter value for b : ");
scanf("%lf", &bb);
printf("Enter value for c : ");
scanf("%lf", &cc);

/* Better make sure there is a real root for these coefficients */
aux = bb * bb - 4 * aa * cc;

if ( aux > 0.0 ) /* There are 2 solutions */
{
aux = sqrt( aux ); /* Our 'aux' variable now holds the square root
of its previous value, we do this because
we don't want to calculate the square root
more than once */
/* We have already made sure that aa !=0, so a division is safe */
root1 = ( -bb + aux ) / ( 2 * aa );
root2 = ( -bb - aux ) / ( 2 * aa );
printf("\nThe roots %.4lf and %.4lf were found\n\n", root1, root2 );
}
else if ( aux == 0.0 ) /* There is only one solution */
{
root1 = -bb / ( 2 * aa );
printf("\nA single root, %.4lf, was found\n\n", root1 );
}
else /* There is no real solution */
{
printf("\nNo real roots were found\n\n");
}
} /* End while() loop */

printf("\nEnd of program, goodbye!\n\n");

return;
}


// one more solution at http://www.electrofriends.com/source_cod...