Interpretation of int (*a)[3]

Question

When working with arrays and pointers in C, one quickly discovers that they are by no means equivalent although it might seem so at a first glance. I know about the differen

Answer 1

It declares a pointer to an array of 3 ints.

The parentheses are necessary as the following declares an array of 3 pointers to int:

int* a[3];

You get better readability when using typedef:

typedef int threeInts[3];
threeInts* pointerToThreeInts;