NAME

typeof — GNU extension for type of an expression

SYNOPSIS

type
typeof(expression);

DESCRIPTION

The typeof() construct can be used to obtain the type of an expression. The syntax is comparable to that of sizeof(), but semantically typeof() operates like a type name defined with typedef.

EXAMPLES

The following is a typical example of a type-generic macro:

#define MAX(a, b) ({		\ 
	typeof(a) _a = (a);	\ 
	typeof(b) _b = (b);	\ 
	_a > _b ? _a : _b;	\ 
})

SEE ALSO

gcc(1), __alignof__(3), attribute(3), offsetof(3)

CAVEATS

The typeof() construct is a non-standard, compiler-specific extension.