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From: art@dinorah.wustl.edu (Arthur B. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.std.c
Subject: How do I define function returning pointer to function returning int?
Keywords: function returning function pointer, ANSI C,
Message-ID: <1990Mar7.212639.10313@dinorah.wustl.edu>
Date: 7 Mar 90 21:26:39 GMT
Followup-To: comp.std.c
Organization: Computerized Medical Systems
Lines: 53

HELP!!

    My "ANSI C" references (K&R2 and Mark Williams' "ANSI C, A Lexical
Guide") are conflicting and vague on an important (to me) issue, and I
don't have a copy of the standard (draft or otherwise).  I think the 
pertinent section of the standard may be 3.7.1

    The simplest question is "Can you define a function of no
arguments that returns a pointer to a function returning int?"

    The next question is "How?"

    Several contenders I see are:

#1)
int (* gorp ()) ( void )
    {...}

#2)
int ((* gorp)()) ( void )
    {...}

#3)
typedef int (* gorp_t)();
gorp_t gorp ( int a, int b )
    {...}

#4)
typedef int ((* gorp_t)());
gorp_t gorp ( int a, int b )
    {...}

    Which of these are legal?  Why are those that are not legal
illegal?  Which of these can I reasonably expect a compiler to
support?  What about "old style" C?

    BTW, I am assuming that it is perfectly legal to pass parameters
that are pointers to functions returning int, e.g.,

int frzp ( int (* farg)() )
    {...}

or

int frzp2 ( int ((* farg)()) )
    {...}

if I am wrong here, please let me know!  (And again, what about "old
style" C?)

	I am
    	-art smith
(art@dinorah.wustl.edu    or   ...!uunet!wucs1!dinorah!art)