[This was posted to comp.lang.c by its author, David Anderson, on 1994-05-06.] Message-ID: <17188@anderson> There is a technique known as the ``Clockwise/Spiral Rule'' which enables any C programmer to parse in their head any C declaration! There are three simple steps to follow: Starting with the unknown element, move in a spiral/clockwise direction; when ecountering the following elements replace them with the corresponding english statements: [X] or [] => Array X size of... or Array undefined size of... (type1, type2) => function passing type1 and type2 returning... * => pointer(s) to... Keep doing this in a spiral/clockwise direction until all tokens have been covered. Always resolve anything in parenthesis first! +-------+ | +-+ | | ^ | | char *str[10]; ^ ^ | | ...