What is this code doing? (size_t)-1

Question

Can someone explain what happens when size_t, or any other type identifier, is wrapped in parentheses. I know it is the old typecast syntax but in this context I don\'t follow w

Answer 1

Some library methods intentionally return (size_t)(-1) to indicate an error condition. For example, the iconv method from the GNU libiconv library. I assume there is some good reason why these functions don't return ssize_t (signed) return values, which would allow you to check for -1 directly.