I'm trying to print the list of a singly linked list that I referred to in link text. It works, but I do get the compiler warnings:
Initialization discards qualifiers from pointer target type
(on declaration of start = head) and
return discards qualifiers from pointer target type
(on return statement) in this code:
/* Prints singly linked list and returns head pointer */
LIST *PrintList(const LIST *head)
{
LIST *start = head;
for (; start != NULL; start = start->next)
printf("%15s %d ea\n", head->str, head->count);
return head;
}
I am using XCode. Any thoughts?
It's this part:
LIST *start = head;
The parameter for the function is a pointer to a constant, const LIST *head
; this means you cannot change what it is pointing to. However, the pointer above is to non-const; you could dereference it and change it.
It needs to be const
as well:
const LIST *start = head;
The same applies to your return type.
All the compiler is saying is: "Hey, you said to the caller 'I won't change anything', but you're opening up opportunities for that."