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In article <9a7cb$d1625.8d@news.tcsmgmt.com>, vashist@tcsmgmt.com (Vashist
Worah) writes: 
|> This may seem trivial to veterans here, but I am trying to figure out 
|> what in the world is the difference in declaring pointers in the two 
|> different manners illustrated below (VC++ 2.2):
|> 
|> 1)	double*  x
|> 2)	double  *x

None.

C is defined in terms of `tokens'. Whitespace forms part of some token (e.g.
string literal or character tokens containing blanks), but its major use is
to separate tokens from each other (see note below). Each of the above two forms
give rise to the same sequence of three tokens: `double',`*' and `x'. The
same set of tokens result from `double*x' with no whitespace whatsoever.

double* x; is however confusing to many beginners: it seems to say that you
are declaring x to be of type `double*'. This is correct, but the obvious
generalization `double* x,y;' declares x to be of type `double*', but y to be
of type `double'. 

double *x; is therefore my preferred way of writing it. double *x,y,*z;
defines x and z to be pointers to doubles, and y to be a double.

Cheers
Tanmoy

Note: To be precise, my statements are wrong. `Tokens' are formed from
`prerocessing tokens', and it is the latter which need to be separated by
whitespace if necessary. Because of the # preprocessing operator and special
meaning of end-of-line in the preprocessing directives, whitespace cannot be
_completely_ ignored when outside of pp-tokens. 
-- 
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