这在C中意味着什么

Question

I know that int *(*func)() means a function pointer which takes no arguments and returns an integer pointer but what does the following syntax means in C:

int *(*func())[]

Any explanations on how do we read such syntax in C would be very helpful.

Answer 1

func is a function and returning a pointer to an array of pointers to int.

reference link : http://gateoverflow.in/35193/regarding-pointers

Answer 2

It is a function that returns an array pointer. Written more explicit, here is the meaning of the various parts:

item_type (*function_name(parameters))[array bounds];

Where item_type is the type of the array items in the array pointed at.

The array pointer is a pointer to an array of unknown size, which is actually allowed by C , but not overly useful.

Overall, this function doesn't seem very useful and if you should ever need such an odd construct, you shouldn't write it as gibberish like this. Here is the equivalent form with a typedef:

typedef int* array_t[];

array_t* func();