Multi-character constant warnings

Question

Why is this a warning? I think there are many cases when is more clear to use multi-char int constants instead of \"no meaning\" numbers or instead of defining const variabl

Answer 1

Simplest C/C++ any compiler/standard compliant solution, was mentioned by @leftaroundabout in comments above:

int x = *(int*)"abcd";

Or a bit more specific:

int x = *(int32_t*)"abcd";

One more solution, also compliant with C/C++ compiler/standard since C99 (except clang++, which has a known bug):

int x = ((union {char s[5]; int number;}){"abcd"}).number;

/* just a demo check: */
printf("x=%d stored %s byte first\n", x, x==0x61626364 ? "MSB":"LSB");

Here anonymous union is used to give a nice symbol-name to the desired numeric result, "abcd" string is used to initialize the lvalue of compound literal (C99).