The variable definition clause in modern programming languages

Students in Emory studied programming using the modern Java programming language which has a simple to understand syntax for variable definition

Java's syntax to define a variable:

DataType variableName ;

Examples:

int a ; a is an int int[] b ; b is an int[] (array of int)

Note:

In Java, you can also define an array (object) variable as follows:
This syntax is to accommodate the older generation of C style array definition.
The proper form of array definition in Java is:

Reading C's syntax for variable definitions

How to read a simple variable definition in C:

int a ; // meaning: the expression a is of the type int

How to read a reference variable definition in C:

int *a ; should be read as: int *a ; // meaning: the expression *a is an int

$64,000 question:

Explanation:

If:

*a is an int (and * is the de-reference operator !)

then:

a contains an address of an int variable !!! i.e.: a is a reference variable to an int variable

More common way to write a definition of reference variables

Note:

Some times, you see programmers use the following "style" (that is not used by mature C programmers) to write the definition of a reference variable:
The "intention is to mimic the Java style of variable definition to reflect the fact that the variable a has the type int*.
The conventional (and proper) way in C to write the definition of a reference variable:
because this notation reflects the underlying meaning of the definition as:

Some more advanced examples of variable definition syntax

Consider the following variable definition that defines 2 variables:

int *a, b ;

This variable definition defines:

*a is an int ===> a is a reference variable to an int b is an int ===> b is an int

Example 2:

int *a, *b ;

This variable definition defines:

*a is an int ===> a is a reference variable to an int *b is an int ===> b is also a reference variable an int