in c: func(void) vs. func()

c function void lint
noamtm picture noamtm · Jul 22, 2009 · Viewed 16.4k times · Source

When a C function does not accept any arguments, does it have to be declared/defined with a "void" parameter by the language rules? PC-Lint seems to have problems when there's nothing at all in the argument-list, and I was wondering if it's something in the language syntax that I don't know about.

Edit: I just found a duplicate (back-dupe? it came first) question, C void arguments, which has more answers and explanations.

Answer

dfa picture dfa · Jul 22, 2009

void means the function does not take any parameters. For example,

int init (void)
{
    return 1;
}

This is not the same as defining

int init ()
{
    return 1;
}

because in the second case the compiler will not check whether the function is really called with no arguments at all; instead, a function call with arbitrary number of arguments will be accepted without any warnings (this is implemented only for the compatibility with the old-style function definition syntax, pre-ANSI).

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