How does this program work??

Recently, i came across a c language code snippet. That is:

Code:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
int main()
{ 
    int a=3, b = 5; 
    printf(&a["Ya!Hello! how is this? %s\n"], &b["junk/super"]); 
    printf(&a["WHAT%c%c%c %c%c %c !\n"], 1["this"], 2["beauty"],0["tool"],0["is"],3["sensitive"],4["CCCCCC"]); 
    getch();
}

This program produced output:

Hello! how is this? super
That is C !

I can't under stand how this works? I've used Microsoft Visual C++ compiler. Please explain this code.

Also suggest some websites where can I learn such type of advanced programming.

Thanks in advance.

kcuF this code; you don't want to program like this.

It works because pointers are integral types and addition is commutative for them, and, for example, `3["this"]` is the same `("this") + 3`.

refer to the following link, you will find the solution

C Puzzle : Level 3

I am not sure but i'll give it a try.
1st printf
Mind that a has value 3.So what it does is to retrieve from string "Ya!Hello..." the substring from third position,but you have to imagine the string as an array.So element at zero position is Y.Then the %s is replaced by the substring of where b points to which again (with same logic) points to s,so %s will be replaced from s till the end of the string,thus with super.

2nd printf
Same logic.But now prints characters instead of string.The first %c is replaced by the a-rd(3rd) element of WHAT which is T and so on..

Ya i referred the link and it was a bit explanatory. But i still don't understand how the printf prints the output in this program. Can u please xplain it in detail??

Yup ur logic seems to be correct....well but it is obvious that one doesn't code like this but these snippets throw some good mind games......

From what i understood....

"Ya!Hello! how is this? %s\n" is stream of characters which is equivalent to char *p="Ya!Hello! how is this? %s\n".
Here you are writing p+3 which means discard first three characters which will be "Hello! how is this? %s\n". Same logic applies to every other part of code.
On first printf it is %s and on second it is %c so you will be having only one character from each word.

Originally Posted by msh

It works because pointers are integral types and addition is commutative for them, and, for example, `3["this"]` is the same `("this") + 3`.

Addition of a pointer and an integral value is commutative, but pointers are not integral types. The result of adding a pointer to an int is a pointer, not an int.

There is also the quibble that a string literal is not a pointer either. It is a (const) array of char - which can be converted to a pointer, despite not being a pointer.

Originally Posted by grumpy

Addition of a pointer and an integral value is commutative, but pointers are not integral types. The result of adding a pointer to an int is a pointer, not an int.

You're right.

There is also the quibble that a string literal is not a pointer either. It is a (const) array of char - which can be converted to a pointer, despite not being a pointer.

Yes, it's not a pointer in a strictly C sense, but, and correct me if I'm wrong, that is what it will become during compilation -- an address in the data segment where the string literal is stored. Hance why this is possible in the first place.

Originally Posted by Dushyant

Yup ur logic seems to be correct....well but it is obvious that one doesn't code like this but these snippets throw some good mind games......

Glad you agree

Originally Posted by sana.iitkgp

From what i understood....

"Ya!Hello! how is this? %s\n" is stream of characters which is equivalent to char *p="Ya!Hello! how is this? %s\n".
Here you are writing p+3 which means discard first three characters which will be "Hello! how is this? %s\n". Same logic applies to every other part of code.
On first printf it is %s and on second it is %c so you will be having only one character from each word.

Yes,you understood correct.I could not call it however stream of characters but a sequence or characters(or a string )

Originally Posted by msh

Yes, it's not a pointer in a strictly C sense, but, and correct me if I'm wrong, that is what it will become during compilation -- an address in the data segment where the string literal is stored. Hance why this is possible in the first place.

Well, it's not a pointer in any sense. A string literal is a different thing from a pointer. "Able to be converted to a pointer" is not the same as "is a pointer".

Take out the words "in the data segment" (since not all executable file formats have a "data segment") and you're roughly right. The compiler does the array-to-pointer conversion, within certain expressions ..... which is a more technically formal way of what you are saying. The name of an array is still not a pointer (and a lot of compilers use different instructions to access something_known_to_be_an_array[index] than they do to access some_pointer[index]). But the compiler can recognise an expression of the form "array_name + integer", and do appropriate conversions (say of array_name to pointer). The thing is, the standard describes the observable effect required, it doesn't mandate how a compiler achieves that effect.