Question

I’m currently refactoring/tidying up some old C code used in a C++ project, and regularly see functions such as:

int f(void) 

which I would tend to write as:

int f() 

Is there any reason not to replace (void) with () throughout the codebase in order to improve consistency, or is there a subtle difference between the two that I am unaware of?

More specifically, if a virtual member function in C++ is described as:

virtual int f(void) 

and a derived class includes a member function:

int f() 

is this a valid override? Additionally, am I likely to encounter any linker problems based on almost identical signatures?

Answer 1

In C, the declaration int f(void) means a function returning int that takes no parameters. The declaration int f() means a function returning int that takes any number of parameters. Thus, if you have a function that takes no parameters in C, the former is the correct prototype.

In C++, I believe int f(void) is deprecated, and int f() is preferred, as it specifically means a function that takes no parameters.