Pointer on type instead of variable name?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
In C, what is the correct syntax for declaring pointers?
Correct C pointer notation

What is the difference between

int* x

and

int *x

(if one exists) ?

That's great thanks! I'll accept one of the answers as soon as Stack Overflow allows me! — Stumbler, Nov 29 '12 at 18:29
It's possibly a duplicate, but mine has a more specific name (for instance that question didn't appear when I did a quick search on the matter). — Stumbler, Nov 29 '12 at 18:41

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 29 '12 at 18:26

They both the same. Only difference is that you cant declare many variables in such way:

int* x, a, b; //a and b are not pointers

int *x, *a, *b; //all are pointers

I use first notation, for me it shows that variable has pointer type, not pointer itself.

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 17 '17 at 01:03

2

There is no difference. You will get in both cases an int pointer.

A reason to prefer the second one is when you declare multiple variables at once:

int *str, *foo;
int* str, foo;

Those two lines are different, the first one declares two pointers to int, whereas the second one declares one pointer to int and one int type variable.

edited Mar 17 '17 at 01:03

Quazi Irfan

2,555
5
34
69

answered Nov 29 '12 at 18:25

rekire

47,260
30
167
264

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 29 '12 at 18:25

1

It's the same definition of pointer. both are pointer to an int

answered Nov 29 '12 at 18:25

MOHAMED

41,599
58
163
268

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 29 '12 at 18:25

Whitespace has no significance to the compiler in this case. But, some people might interpret it as meaning differently (as in what points to what). Not a good thing to do in my opinion (since whitespace is not something that should be taken into great account).

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 29 '12 at 18:25

there is no difference at all.

In both case these are pointers to int

* is associated with identifiers not the type

just for clear vision best practice to give space between type and *.

int *p;

for e.g. if you write

int *p,q; means p is a pointer but q is int. it signifies that * is associated with identifier name

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 29 '12 at 18:26

1

They are the same, but you just have to be careful when declaring multiple variables:

 int* x, y; // x is a int*, while y is just an int
 int *z, *w; // both z and w are int*

answered Nov 29 '12 at 18:26

Ken Wayne VanderLinde

18,915
3
47
72

Pointer on type instead of variable name?

6 Answers6