Pointer syntax in C: why does * only apply to the first variable?

Question

The following declaration in C:

int* a, b;

will declare a as type int* and b as type int

Answer 1

Consider the declaration:

int *a[10];
int (*b)[10];

The first is an array of ten pointers to integers, the second is a pointer to an array of ten integers.

Now, if the * was attached to the type declaration, it wouldn't be syntatically valid to put a parenthesis between them. So you'd have to find another way to differentiate between the two forms.