CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cvoidvoid-pointers
user1508893
user1508893

Reputation: 9793

function declared as void* foo()

I've come across this piece of code in my O.S book:

void *foo()
{
     // does something

     pthread_exit(NULL);
}

What is the meaning of void *foo? Does that mean the function return a pointer to something of type void?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 747

Answers (2)

Sergey Kalinichenko
Sergey Kalinichenko

Reputation: 726579

No, it means that the function returns an pointer of the untyped type - void*.

This is a "generic" pointer type. Any pointer to data can be cast to void*, and returned back to the caller. However, in order to dereference the pointer, you must cast it to a non-void pointer type (int*, long*, char*, and so on).

Upvotes: 3

daniel gratzer
daniel gratzer

Reputation: 53881

void * means it returns a pointer to some type, it isn't specified which. In order to be used the pointer is casted to the appropriate type and then used. The fact that void *foo is just a matter of spacing.

Check out this explanation

Upvotes: 2

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