Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!haven!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Use of Const keyword in ANSI C
Message-ID: <13447@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 8 Sep 88 18:59:58 GMT
References: <441@optilink.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 23

In article <441@optilink.UUCP> cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
[structure containing]
>        const char*     C;
>
>    Test1.C = "not a test case";    /* compiler accepts this -- bad */
>
>Should the attempt to set Test1.C to point to another string cause a
>complaint from the compiler? ... [or] have I missed something here in
>my understanding of 'const' ... ?

The latter: `const' applies here to the characters, not to the pointer.
So `Test1.C[n] = expr' is illegal, but `Test1.C = expr' is legal.  If
you just want the pointer to be constant, use

	char *const C;

and if you want both constant, use

	const char *const C;

The `volatile' modifier works in the same fashion.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris