what is the difference between const int*, const int * const, int const *

• int* - pointer to int
• int const * - pointer to const int
• int * const - const pointer to int
• int const * const - const pointer to const int

Now the first const can on either side of the type so:

• const int * == int const *
• const int * const == int const * const

If you want to go really crazy you can do things like this:

• int ** - pointer to pointer to int
• int ** const - a const pointer to a pointer to an int
• int * const * - a pointer to a const pointer to an int
• int const ** - a pointer to a pointer to a const int
• int * const * const - a const pointer to a const pointer to an int
• ...

And to make sure we are clear on the meaning of const

const
 int
*
 foo
;


int
 *
 const
 bar
;
 //note, you actually need to set the pointer 


                 //here because you can't change it later ;)



foo
 is a variable pointer to a constant int. That is
you change what you point to but not the value that you point to. Most
often this is seen with cstrings where you have a pointer to a const char

.
You may change which string you point to but you can't changed the
strings content. This is important when the string itself is in the
data segment of a program and shouldn't be changed.

bar is a const or fixed pointer to a value that can be changed. This is like a reference with out the extra syntactic sugar. Because of this fact, usually you would use a reference where you would use a T* const pointer unless you need to allow null pointers.