What does (char *) x or (void *) z mean?

Question

I know char *x means a pointer to char, but I\'m confused about what (char*) x means.

Answer 1

It's a cast. You are instructing the compiler to treat x as if it were a char *, regardless of its real type. Casts should only be used if you really know what you are doing.

For some built-in types, the compiler may perform a meaningful conversion, e.g. converting a double to an int by rounding, but for other types you may not get what you expect.