typeof operator in C
Since typeof
is a compiler extension, there is not really a definition for it, but in the tradition of C it would be an operator, e.g sizeof
and _Alignof
are also seen as an operators.
And you are mistaken, C has dynamic types that are only determined at run time: variable modified (VM) types.
size_t n = strtoull(argv[1], 0, 0);
double A[n][n];
typeof(A) B;
can only be determined at run time.
Add on in 2021: there are good chances that typeof
with similar rules as for sizeof
will make it into C23.
It's a GNU extension. In a nutshell it's a convenient way to declare an object having the same type as another. For example:
int x; /* Plain old int variable. */
typeof(x) y; /* Same type as x. Plain old int variable. */
It works entirely at compile-time and it's primarily used in macros. One famous example of macro relying on typeof
is container_of
.