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In computer programming, a declaration is a language construct specifying identifier properties: it declares a word's (identifier's) meaning. [1] Declarations are most commonly used for functions, variables, constants, and classes, but can also be used for other entities such as enumerations and type definitions. [1]
C functions are akin to the subroutines of Fortran or the procedures of Pascal. A definition is a special type of declaration. A variable definition sets aside storage and possibly initializes it, a function definition provides its body. An implementation of C providing all of the standard library functions is called a hosted implementation.
In C and C++, the line above represents a forward declaration of a function and is the function's prototype. After processing this declaration, the compiler would allow the program code to refer to the entity printThisInteger in the rest of the program. The definition for a function must be provided somewhere (same file or other, where it would ...
A function prototype is always a declaration and never a definition. Also, in standard C, a function is always external, but some compiler extensions allow a function to be defined inside a function. An external variable must be defined, exactly once, outside of any function; this sets aside storage for it.
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 6 January 2025. General-purpose programming language "C programming language" redirects here. For the book, see The C Programming Language. Not to be confused with C++ or C#. C Logotype used on the cover of the first edition of The C Programming Language Paradigm Multi-paradigm: imperative (procedural ...
The term "function prototype" is particularly used in the context of the programming languages C and C++ where placing forward declarations of functions in header files allows for splitting a program into translation units, i.e. into parts that a compiler can separately translate into object files, to be combined by a linker into an executable ...
The latter list is sometimes called the "initializer list" or "initialization list" (although the term "initializer list" is formally reserved for initialization of class/struct members in C++; see below). A declaration which creates a data object, instead of merely describing its existence, is commonly called a definition.
typedef is a reserved keyword in the programming languages C, C++, and Objective-C.It is used to create an additional name (alias) for another data type, but does not create a new type, [1] except in the obscure case of a qualified typedef of an array type where the typedef qualifiers are transferred to the array element type. [2]