How many levels of pointers can we have?

Question

How many pointers (*) are allowed in a single variable?

Let's consider the following example.

int a = 10;
int *p = &a;

Similarly we can have

int **q = &p;
int ***r = &q;

and so on.

For example,

int ****************zz;

Answer 1

The C standard specifies the lower limit:

5.2.4.1 Translation limits

276 The implementation shall be able to translate and execute at least one program that contains at least one instance of every one of the following limits: [...]

279 — 12 pointer, array, and function declarators (in any combinations) modifying an arithmetic, structure, union, or void type in a declaration

The upper limit is implementation specific.