TCPL/A.08.09_Typedef
A.8.9 Typedef
Declarations whose storage class specifier is typedef do not declare objects; instead they define identifiers that name types. These identifiers are called typedef names.
typedef-name:
identifier
A typedef declaration attributes a type to each name among its declarators in the usual way (see Par.A.8.6). Thereafter, each such typedef name is syntactically equivalent to a type specifier keyword for the associated type.
For example, after
typedef long Blockno, *Blockptr; typedef struct { double r, theta; } Complex;
the constructions
Blockno b; extern Blockptr bp; Complex z, *zp;
are legal declarations. The type of b is long, that of bp is ``pointer to long,’’ and that of z is the specified structure; zp is a pointer to such a structure.
typedef does not introduce new types, only synonyms for types that could be specified in another way. In the example, b has the same type as any long object.
Typedef names may be redeclared in an inner scope, but a non-empty set of type specifiers must be given. For example,
extern Blockno;
does not redeclare Blockno, but
extern int Blockno;
does.