C Deciphering declarations

Question

Ok, this was a bit too much for me. How do you read these declarations?

char *(*(**myCBT[][10])())[];

Please note: I'm not specifically asking for this example but for a general rule of thumb if a beginner like me faces a tough puzzle like this.

http://www.cdecl.org/ Such declarations are a bit much for everyone. I doubt anyone can find a decent example where you would need that. — cnicutar, Aug 16 '11 at 17:59
See e.g. http://ieng9.ucsd.edu/~cs30x/rt_lt.rule.html for "right-to-left" rule. — Paul R, Aug 16 '11 at 18:00
possible duplicate of [Complex Declarations](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1893013/complex-declarations) — Oliver Charlesworth, Aug 16 '11 at 18:01
@cnicutar: not as trouble as this one but signal(3) had a tricky declaration to many people, these days it's typedef'ed (at least here in BSDs). — sidyll, Aug 16 '11 at 18:05
@sidyll The declaration for a signal handler is short and sweet compared to an `array of arrays of pointers to pointers to functions`. — cnicutar, Aug 16 '11 at 18:07
@cnicutar, for sure. I said that it's not that difficult, but its just a more real world example on where/how more complex declarations can be used. — sidyll, Aug 16 '11 at 18:10
Possible Duplicate: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/859634/c-pointer-to-array-array-of-pointers-disambiguation — legends2k, Jul 10 '13 at 11:21

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 16 '11 at 18:05

2

Use David Anderson's Clock wise spiral rule for reading such notations.

answered Aug 16 '11 at 18:05

Alok Save

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 16 '11 at 18:00

1

From cdecl:

declare myCBT as array of array 10 of pointer to pointer to function returning pointer to array of pointer to char

answered Aug 16 '11 at 18:00

sergio

2

Is there a similar site for decoding that Pseudoenglish into English? :) – razlebe Aug 16 '11 at 18:02
@razlebe It's already nicely explained. C declarations are read boustrophedonically. – sidyll Aug 16 '11 at 18:08
@sidyll: I had to look that up! – Rudy Velthuis Aug 16 '11 at 19:21
@Rudy haha, now I'm wondering if we have one of these in German, though it's sometimes hard to find it even in English definition dictionaries. EDIT: Yep, boustrophedon > bustrophedon – sidyll Aug 16 '11 at 19:54
I have never heard it in German either, and I live in Germany. – Rudy Velthuis Aug 16 '11 at 20:24

2 Answers2