Looking to get the fundamentals on where the term “void” comes from, and why it is called void. The intention of the question is to assist someone who has no C experience, and is suddenly looking at a C-based codebase.
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Looking to get the fundamentals on where the term “void” comes from, and why it is called void. The intention of the question is to assist someone who has no C experience, and is suddenly looking at a C-based codebase.
Basically it means “nothing” or “no type”
There are 3 basic ways that void is used:
Function argument:
int myFunc(void)— the function takes nothing.
Function return value:
void myFunc(int)— the function returns nothing
Generic data pointer:
void* data— ‘data’ is a pointer to data of unknown type, and cannot be dereferenced
Note: the
voidin a function argument is optional in C++, soint myFunc()is exactly the same asint myFunc(void), and it is left out completely in C#. It is always required for a return value.