question about typedef

[volk]

Is anyone here familiar with using typedef like this:

typedef string type[];

What exactly does that do?

[Wledge]

A typedef declaration does not introduce a new type,only a synonym for the type specified.
In your example

typedef string type[];
...
type strArray = { "Hello","World"};

[Perspective]

Originally posted by volk
What exactly does that do?

yeah, like Wledge said. it makes 'type' represent a string array. now you dont need all that harsh typing of "string[]" you can just use "type".

[7stud]

Why wouldn't that typedef be written like this instead:

typedef string[] type;

[Perspective]

Originally posted by 7stud
Why wouldn't that typedef be written like this instead:

typedef string[] type;

im not sure if this is true for c++ (ive been programming alot of Java at work lately) but i dont think it matters where the brackets go.

string [] var; == string var[];

[Zach L.]

I'm pretty sure that only:

type name[];

is valid in C++.

[7stud]

I thought with a typedef what's on the right is a synonym for what's on the left. So, it seems to me if you declared your typedef like this:

typedef string type[]

then type[] would be the synonym for string, and you would have to declare a string like this:

type[] text;

What's the deal with typedef?

[major_small]

this is the way it's used:

...
typedef char string20[20];
string20 name;
cin.getline(name,20,'\n');
...

this is C++ - i'm not sure about java...

[roktsyntst]

Originally posted by 7stud
I thought with a typedef what's on the right is a synonym for what's on the left. So, it seems to me if you declared your typedef like this:

typedef string type[]

then type[] would be the synonym for string, and you would have to declare a string like this:

type[] text;

What's the deal with typedef?

Not necessarily, exactly. Its syntax is supposed to resemble that of a variable declaration. Think of these:

char foo[5];
typedef char bar[] // the example in question

foo's type is a char[], just like "bar" is a synonym for char[]. So the example works because it's analogous to the way you declare an array of something.

I think it *does* matter where the brackets go:

char* foo;    // Either the * in front
char bar[5]; // or brackets after

typedef char* foo; // ditto
typedef char foo[];

But I have not yet been able to check these.