alt Hacker NewsSince this is about C declarations: for anyone who (like me) had the misfortune of learning the so-called "spiral rule" in college rather than being taught how declarations in C work, below are some links that explain the "declaration follows use" idea that (AFAIK) is the true philosophy behind C declaration syntax (and significantly easier to remember/read/write).
TL;DR: you declare a variable in C _in exactly the same way you would use it:_ if you know how to use a variable, then you know how to read and write a declaration for it.
https://eigenstate.org/notes/c-decl https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12775966
Replies
That is correct.
int x, *p, arr[5], fn(), (*pfn)();
It's the intended way to read/write declarations/expressions. As a consequence, asterisks ends up placed near the identifiers. The confused ones will think it's a stylistic choice and won't understand any of this.
if you know how to use a variable, then you know how to read and write a declaration for it.
In other words, the precedence of operators in a declaration have exactly the same precedence as in its use.