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Discussion on: It's a pointer to a type, not a variable with an asterisk in its name

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joelbonetr profile image
JoelBonetR 🥇 • • Edited

You can also understand the asterisk as a prefix on the name to determine that int *x as X is a pointer storing a memory address of type int data or any other argument of your preference. That's the issue, that you can read and interpret it in different ways so it's a bit subjective... 😅

I understand that sometimes the notation is confusing, because different textbooks place the * differently. The three following declarations are equivalent:

 int *x; 
 int* x; 
 int * x;
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I always believed that the least confusing notation is int * x because when read from right to left you can interpret it as x is a pointer, hence allocating a memory address which references to an int value, plus you not "link" visibly the asterisk to the type nor to the var name.

There are some details into that, see:

int* x, y, z;
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This is 1 pointer and 2 int variables.

int *x, y, z;
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This is still 1 pointer and 2 int variables.

For the sake of clarity:

 int * x, * y, * z;
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Those are effectively 3 pointers and we can understand the asterisk as a somewhat independent (keyword if you will) and use it just like that.

I haven't coded in C for around 10Y, maybe nowadays there is some linter out there that you can use to enforce one way or the other in your projects 😁

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mellen profile image
Matt Ellen-Tsivintzeli •

Thank you for engaging in good faith.

I completely disagree with everything you said.

Apart from the bit about linters. Linters are great.

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JoelBonetR 🥇 • • Edited

😂😂 you are truly angry around this topic I see.

I updated the comment above with a bit more of information around why I think that int * x is the least confusing, please check it.

I don't think I'll be able to stress it further, though 😅

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JoelBonetR 🥇 •

PD: Just in case it's not clear in the text above I agree with you in that int* x is the worse way by far.

Between the other two:

int *x;
int * x;
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it's just subjective opinion around readability and I won't care much if it's one or the other.