How to parse ?

[junky_fellow]

How the following expression is parsed ?

*(int *)&flag;

What are the general steps that should be followed in interpreting
such expressions ?

Thanx for any help ...

 

[Zoran Cutura]

How the following expression is parsed ?

*(int *)&flag;

What are the general steps that should be followed in interpreting
such expressions ?

The precedence and associativity rules of the operators can be taken
from most text books. For example K&R2s table 2-1 list them.

You take a look at the operators and find out in which order they are to
be evaluated. In your example above (which may result in undefined
behavior and doesn't have have real live meaning at all) the "*", "()"
and "&" operator all have the same precedence but are to be evaluated
right to left according to K&R2 so it goes like.

Get the address of flag, let that address be a pointer to an int and
take the content of that int.

 

[john_bode]

How the following expression is parsed ?

*(int *)&flag;

1. flag -- start with the identifier; in this case, flag
2. &flag -- get the address of flag
3. (int *)&flag -- convert the type of &flag from pointer to T
(whatever flag's base type is) to pointer to int
4. *(int *)&flag -- dereference the address of flag as though it were
a pointer to int.

Basically, you're intepreting the bit pattern stored in flag as though
it were an integer. Note this may or may not give a meaningful or
useful result depending on the base type of flag.

What are the general steps that should be followed in interpreting
such expressions ?

Read up on dereferences and cast expressions in your handy C reference
manual.