C variable declarations after function heading in definition [duplicate]

Answer 1

That looks like K&R (pre-ANSI) style. I don't think it's valid C99, but are they using C99? Joel

Answer 2

Er. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your question, but i and b in that snippet are parameters to the function. It's not some compact way of declaring variables within the function, like:

int someFunction() {
    int i, b;

When you call someFunction, you pass it those arguments:

someFunction(1, 2); // `i` will be `1` and `b` `2` within `someFunction`

Answer 3

I think you are referring to the "old-fashioned" pre-ANSI way of declaring parameters in C. It looked something like this:

int foo(a, b)
    int a,
    int b
{
    /* ... */
}

That may still be valid in C99, and will be accepted by compilers for backward-compatibility reasons, but it should be considered deprecated/archaic.