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| From | "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Newsgroups | comp.lang.c |
| Subject | Re: scanf design |
| Date | 2016-12-12 13:18 -0500 |
| Organization | A noiseless patient Spider |
| Message-ID | <o2mpi6$4tb$1@dont-email.me> (permalink) |
| References | <o2kh5p$e5q$1@dont-email.me> <96650663-827e-4f89-b78f-7b42a2516ef3@googlegroups.com> |
"Malcolm McLean" <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:96650663-827e-4f89-b78f-7b42a2516ef3@googlegroups.com...
> On Sunday, December 11, 2016 at 9:42:45 PM UTC, Bill Cuningham wrote:
>> I have notice over time, and the last few days I have been thinking
>> about this in particular. scanf's design. It wants the value of the
>> address a pointer points to. Hum now I notice many functions want
>> a pointer's address. But not so many an address pointed at.
>>
> No, it's rare. Normally we pass in values, either directly or via
> arrays, and get the results back either in the function's return
> type or in a buffer.
> So normally pointers are named variables that point to buffers
> of several values.
>
>
> But scanf is a bit unusual in that it returns a flexible number of
> values of flexible type. So you see the & operator used heavily.
> It's relatively rare to see the & operator used in most code.
In the manual it speaks of "pointer arguments". Now a dumb ass like me isn't
going to be too sure of what that means. And it takes scanf(const char
*format,...) and the ellipsis. Variable arguments.
I know I am responding to you Malcom but this is for anyone to answer.
Is '&' not always used? it's all I've seen used. Very useful function.
Bill
Back to comp.lang.c | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread
scanf design "Bill Cuningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2016-12-11 16:42 -0500
Re: scanf design Noob <root@127.0.0.1> - 2016-12-11 22:55 +0100
Re: scanf design "Bill Cuningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2016-12-11 17:03 -0500
Re: scanf design Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2016-12-11 22:05 +0000
Re: scanf design Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2016-12-11 14:43 -0800
Re: scanf design "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2016-12-12 12:25 -0500
Re: scanf design Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2016-12-12 11:15 -0800
Re: scanf design Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2016-12-12 13:17 -0800
Re: scanf design Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2016-12-12 14:02 -0800
Re: scanf design Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2016-12-12 15:06 -0800
Re: scanf design fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 15:58 -0800
Re: scanf design fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 16:10 -0800
Re: scanf design fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 16:10 -0800
Re: scanf design fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 16:22 -0800
Re: scanf design fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2016-12-15 07:30 -0800
Re: scanf design fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2016-12-15 07:56 -0800
Re: scanf design fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2016-12-15 08:21 -0800
Re: scanf design "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2016-12-12 13:18 -0500
Re: scanf design Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2016-12-12 11:37 -0800
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