macro
<cstdarg>

va_start

void va_start (va_list ap, paramN);
Initialize a variable argument list
Initializes ap to retrieve the additional arguments after parameter paramN.

A function that invokes va_start, shall also invoke va_end before it returns.

Parameters

ap
Uninitialized object of type va_list.
After the call, it carries the information needed to retrieve the additional arguments using va_arg.
If ap has already been passed as first argument to a previous call to va_start or va_copy, it shall be passed to va_end before calling this function.
paramN
Name of the last named parameter in the function definition. The arguments extracted by subsequent calls to va_arg are those after paramN.
The parameter shall not be a parameter declared with register storage class, with function or array type, or with a type that is not compatible with the type that results after application of the default argument promotions.
The parameter shall not be of a reference type, or of a type that is not compatible with the type that results when passing an argument for which there is no parameter.

Return Value

none

Example

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/* va_start example */ #include <stdio.h> /* printf */ #include <stdarg.h> /* va_list, va_start, va_arg, va_end */ void PrintFloats (int n, ...) { int i; double val; printf ("Printing floats:"); va_list vl; va_start(vl,n); for (i=0;i<n;i++) { val=va_arg(vl,double); printf (" [%.2f]",val); } va_end(vl); printf ("\n"); } int main () { PrintFloats (3,3.14159,2.71828,1.41421); return 0; }

The function PrintFloats takes the number of additional arguments as first argument (n), which are then sequentially read using the cstdarg macro and printed out with a specific format.

Output:
Printing floats: [3.14] [2.72] [1.41]


See also

va_arg
Retrieve next argument (macro)
va_end
End using variable argument list (macro)
va_list
Type to hold information about variable arguments (type)
vsprintf
Write formatted data from variable argument list to string (function)