Which of * and [] bind strongest in C?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
C pointer to array/array of pointers disambiguation

In C, is int *thing[5] an array of five pointers, each pointing to an integer, or a pointer to an array of five integers?

Answer 1

[] trumps * per the C precedence table at http://www.difranco.net/cop2220/op-prec.htm which means you have an array of five int pointers.

Answer 2

Maybe is a duplicate... It is an array of five pointers to integer; the program cdecl cited in a similar question can be useful for newbie:

cdecl> explain int *t[5];
declare t as array 5 of pointer to int

Answer 3

If in doubt use parenthesis - the maintenance programmers will thank you (as will you at 5am when you finally find the bug!)

Answer 4

Absent any explicit grouping with parentheses, both the array subscript operator [] and function call operator () bind before *, so

T *a[N];        -- a is an N-element array of pointer to T
T (*a)[N];      -- a is a pointer to an N-element array of T

T *f();         -- f is a function returning pointer to T
T (*f)();       -- f is a pointer to a function returning T

This follows from the grammar (taken from Harbison & Steele, 5th ed., appendix B):

declarator:
  pointer-declarator
  direct-declarator

pointer-declarator:
  pointer direct-declarator

pointer:
  * type-qualifier-listopt
  * type-qualifier-listopt pointer

direct-declarator:
  simple-declarator
  ( declarator )
  function-declarator
  array-declarator

function-declarator:
  direct-declarator ( parameter-type-list )
  direct-declarator ( identifier-listopt )

array-declarator:
  direct-declarator [ constant-expressionopt ]
  direct-declarator [ array-qualifier-listopt array-size-expressionopt ] 
  direct-declarator [ array-qualifier-listopt * ]