Subj : Re: Questions...???
To   : borland.public.cpp.borlandcpp
From : Ed Mulroy
Date : Fri Sep 09 2005 04:34 pm

The function printf accepts a variable length argument list.  It knows how 
many arguments and what to do with them because the first argument is a 
char* style string which contains format specifications.

The format specification for a character is %c and for a char* style string 
is %s.

Once the second, extra opening parentheses is removed from the printf 
statement, the program consists of
  c a string containing format specifications

  decimal integer 34, a '\"' character which matches the first %c in the 
string

  a copy of the string itself which matches the %s in the string

  another 34

34 works as '\"' because in C and C++ characters as merely very short 
integers.  The numeric value for a character is a legal equivalent to its 
character representation.

The reason it was done that way probably was as a puzzle.

..  Ed

> mujeebrm wrote in message
> news:4321c777@newsgroups.borland.com...
> Hi,
>
> my name is mujeeb.
>
> i have some questions about below mentioned program...
>
> main(){ char *c="main(){char *c=%c%s%c;printf(c,34,c,34);}"
> printf((c,34,c,34);}
>
> *c is pointer to char sing-dim array
>
> 34 is ascii for " quotes "
>
> then how printf(c,34,c,34); prints the whole program as it is or 
> replicates it when
>
> printf's declaration says that
>
> printf(format specifiers, arg list);
>
> but in this statement we are only doing this printf(c,34,c,34); why
>
> can any plz decipher this to me or provide reasons or techniques behind 
> all this...

.