what does int main (void) mean? <c>

[adarw]

im learing c with cs50 but im confused what does int main (void) mean

 

[AnonymousGuy]

that main() returns an int to the shell that is calling it and doesn't take any arguments (void)

[hunter123]

int main(void)

 

is the main function of the program that returns some sort of int to the shell (usually an 0 on success and 1 or -1 on failure) the (void) is a pretty old way of denoting a function takes no arguments. it is typically recommended to stick with the empty () rather than the (void) when making a function that has no arguments. but its all preference.

[JacobFW]

21 hours ago, adarw said:

im learing c with cs50 but im confused what does int main (void) mean

 

I get the feeling there's a bit more to your question than you're saying.

[mariushm]

void means the function main has no arguments/parameters

int means the function returns an integer variable, a number.

 

main is the name of the function which is ran by the C runtime once everything is initialized, basically the first code that you wrote which will execute.

It's a "special" function, hardcoded name, but you can probably change it through command line parameters on the c compiler if you really want to.

 

for example you have a function 

 

int calculate_sum(int a, int b) {

 return a+b;

}

 

the function name is calculate_sum, it takes two parameters  a and b which are integer, and returns an integer value.

I think that's right how I wrote it, but I'm not experienced with C, I could be incorrect.