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From: mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Michael Khaw)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Re: weird c code/ c test
Message-ID: <15179@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 30-Jul-87 13:14:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: teknowle.15179
Posted: Thu Jul 30 13:14:57 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Aug-87 22:06:59 EDT
References: <1089@gilsys.UUCP>
Reply-To: mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.UUCP (Michael Khaw)
Organization: Teknowledge, Inc., Palo Alto CA
Lines: 36
Keywords: test, employment, weird, code, pointers
Xref: mnetor comp.lang.c:3431 misc.jobs.misc:533

In article <1089@gilsys.UUCP> mc68020@gilsys.UUCP (Thomas J Keller) writes:
->
->   I just had a strange experience today.  I went to see a head hunter about
->an opening she wanted me to consider, and she popped this "C test" on me.
...
->#include	<stdio.h>
->
->char *c[] = { "ENTER", "NEW", "POINT", "FIRST" };
->char **cp[] = { c+3, c+2, c+1, c };
->char ****cpp = cp;
->
->main()
->{
->    printf("%s", **++cpp);
->    printf("%s ", *--*++cpp+3);
->    printf("%s", *cpp[-2]+3);
->    printf("%s\n", cpp[-1][-1]+1);
->}
...
->   I do question this as a test, however.  That is some pretty esoteric
->pointer manipulation there!  What do you think?

1) Apparently, you haven't read _The C Puzzle Book_.  This example is straight
   out of the book, from a puzzle titled "Pointers and Arrays 4: Pointer Stew",
   except for an error (see point 3).
2) I would have said, "this is unmaintainable code and whoever wrote this
   should be drawn, quartered, boiled in oil, skewered and burned at the stake".
   Or, "Are you using this example with Alan Feuer's permission?"
3) "cpp" should be declared as: char ***cpp = cp;

Mike Khaw

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