A.8.8 Type names

In several contexts (to specify type conversions explicitly with a cast, to declare parameter types in function declarators, and as argument of sizeof) it is necessary to supply the name of a data type. This is accomplished using a type name, which is syntactically a declaration for an object of that type omitting the name of the object.     type-name:       specifier-qualifier-list abstract-declaratoropt     abstract-declarator:       pointer       pointeropt direct-abstract-declarator     direct-abstract-declarator:       ( abstract-declarator )       direct-abstract-declaratoropt [constant-expressionopt]       direct-abstract-declaratoropt (parameter-type-listopt) It is possible to identify uniquely the location in the abstract-declarator where the identifier would appear if the construction were a declarator in a declaration. The named type is then the same as the type of the hypothetical identifier. For example,

   int    int *    int *[3]    int (*)[]    int *()    int (*[])(void) name respectively the types ``integer,'' ``pointer to integer,'' ``array of 3 pointers to integers,'' ``pointer to an unspecified number of integers,'' ``function of unspecified parameters returning pointer to integer,'' and ``array, of unspecified size, of pointers to functions with no parameters each returning an integer.''