Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bu-cs!buengc!bph
From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: function casting
Message-ID: <2723@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 30 Apr 89 08:59:05 GMT
References: <12481@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU>
Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton)
Followup-To: comp.lang.c
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 51

In article <12481@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> clark@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU (Robert P. Clark) writes:
>
>main()
>{
>  int  (*f)();

It's alright, so far...

>  char *foo();
>
>
>    f = ((*int)())foo();  /*  foo returns char*, but I know this is  */
>                          /*  really an address of a function        */

Bad declaration-to-cast conversion...

You want merely to remove the identifier when doing a cast, rather
that rearranging anything.

The declaration

   int (*f)();

becomes a cast, therefore, by excising the "f" and the ";" and
pre-/ap-pending "(" and ")".

   f = ( int (*)() ) foo();

>}

There are programs out there that do it.

If you really want to know, by doing

   f = ((*int)())...

You're trying to call a function pointed-to by a thing called 'int'
which is a C keyword, and therefore will generate all sorts of syntactical
trouble in the situation you've placed it.

PLUG ALERT!

Andrew Koenig's _C Traps and Pitfalls_ handles this about as well
as it can be handled...

GO BACK TO YOUR HOMES, THERE'S NOTHING LEFT TO BE BOUGHT, HERE...

				--Blair
				  "Do I get a free copy of
				   ed. 2, now, huh, Andy, huh,
				   do I do I do I ??  :-)"