GATE EXAM PREPARATION IN "C" - Function Pointer in C

Function Pointer in C

In C, like normal data pointers (int *, char *, etc), we can have pointers to functions. Following is a simple example that shows declaration and function call using function pointer.

#include <stdio.h> // A normal function with an int parameter // and void return type void fun(int a) {     printf("Value of a is %d\n", a); }   int main() {     // fun_ptr is a pointer to function fun()     void (*fun_ptr)(int) = &fun;       /* The above line is equivalent of following two        void (*fun_ptr)(int);        fun_ptr = &fun;     */       // Invoking fun() using fun_ptr     (*fun_ptr)(10);       return 0; }

Output:

Value of a is 10

Why do we need an extra bracket around function pointers like fun_ptr in above example?
If we remove bracket, then the expression “void (*fun_ptr)(int)” becomes “void *fun_ptr(int)” which is declaration of a function that returns void pointer