Why is the asterisk before the variable name, rather than after the type?

Question

Why do most C programmers name variables like this:

int *myVariable;

rather than like this:

int* myVariable;

Answer 1

A great guru once said "Read it the way of the compiler, you must."

http://www.drdobbs.com/conversationsa-midsummer-nights-madness/184403835

Granted this was on the topic of const placement, but the same rule applies here.

The compiler reads it as:

int (*a);

not as:

(int*) a;

If you get into the habit of placing the star next to the variable, it will make your declarations easier to read. It also avoids eyesores such as:

int* a[10];

-- Edit --

To explain exactly what I mean when I say it's parsed as int (*a), that means that * binds more tightly to a than it does to int, in very much the manner that in the expression 4 + 3 * 7 3 binds more tightly to 7 than it does to 4 due to the higher precedence of *.

With apologies for the ascii art, a synopsis of the A.S.T. for parsing int *a looks roughly like this:

      Declaration
      /         \
     /           \
Declaration-      Init-
Secifiers       Declarator-
    |             List
    |               |
    |              ...
  "int"             |
                Declarator
                /       \
               /        ...
           Pointer        \
              |        Identifier
              |            |
             "*"           |
                          "a"

As is clearly shown, * binds more tightly to a since their common ancestor is Declarator, while you need to go all the way up the tree to Declaration to find a common ancestor that involves the int.