C/C++ difference's between "int main()" and "int main(void)"

C

In C programming language, if a function signature is not having any parameters then it can take multiple arguments as input but the same is not true with C++. The compilation will fail if arguments are passed to such a function in C++. This is reason int main() and int main(void) are same in C, but int main(void) is better approach, which restricts the user to pass multiple arguments to main function.

Example (C)

 Live Demo

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
   static int counter = 3;
   if (--counter){
      printf("%d ", counter);
      main(5);
   }
}

Output

2 1

Example (C++)

 Live Demo

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
   static int counter = 3;
   if (--counter){
      cout << counter;
      main(5);
   }
}

Output

main.cpp: In function 'int main()':
main.cpp:10:13: error: too many arguments to function 'int main()'
main(5);
^
main.cpp:5:5: note: declared here
int main()
^~~~

Mahesh Parahar

Published on 06-Jan-2020 10:49:29