Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!umix!metavax!marc
From: marc@metavax.UUCP (Marc Paige)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Use of Const keyword in ANSI C
Message-ID: <3612@metavax.UUCP>
Date: 14 Sep 88 13:19:18 GMT
References: <441@optilink.UUCP> <8454@smoke.ARPA>
Reply-To: marc@metavax.UUCP (Marc Paige)
Organization: Meta Systems, Ltd. -- Ann Arbor, MI
Lines: 27

In article <8454@smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
>In article <441@optilink.UUCP> cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
>>    typedef struct Tag
>>        {
>>        const char*     C;
>>        } TestType;
>>    Test1.C = "not a test case";    /* compiler accepts this -- bad */
>
>That's okay.  You've declared the C member to point to const chars,
>and set it to point to a string literal.  If you want the POINTER to
>be const, instead of what it points to, try
>	char const *	C;
>
>"const" is a type qualifer, not a storage class, so its relative
>position within the type specifiers matters.

The second declaration is also wrong!!  char const and const char are
equivilent.  The way to declare a const pointer is:

	 char * const C;

This declares member C to be a const pointer to char.  You are correct in
your last statement though, const is a qualifier.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
"tired and shagged out from a prolonged squawk" - mpfc the parrot sketch