va_start

C

Language

Headers

Type support

Program utilities

Variadic function support

Error handling

Dynamic memory management

Date and time utilities

Strings library

Algorithms

Numerics

Input/output support

Localization support

Atomic operations (C11)

Thread support (C11)

Technical Specifications

Variadic functions

va_start

va_arg

va_copy

va_end

va_list

Defined in header <stdarg.h>
void va_start( va_list ap, parmN );

The va_start macro enables access to the variable arguments following the named argument parmN.

va_start should be invoked with an instance to a valid va_list object ap before any calls to va_arg.

If parmN is declared with register storage class specifier, with an array type, with a function type, or with a type not compatible with the type that results from default argument promotions, the behavior is undefined.

Parameters

ap	-	an instance of the va_list type
parmN	-	the named parameter preceding the first variable parameter

Expanded value

(none)

Example

Run this code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdarg.h>

int add_nums(int count, ...) 
{
    int result = 0;
    va_list args;
    va_start(args, count);
    for (int i = 0; i < count; ++i) {
        result += va_arg(args, int);
    }
    va_end(args);
    return result;
}

int main(void) 
{
    printf("%d\n", add_nums(4, 25, 25, 50, 50));
}

Possible output:

150

References

• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

• 7.16.1.4 The va_start macro (p: 271-272)

• C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

• 7.15.1.4 The va_start macro (p: 251-252)

• C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

• 4.8.1.1 The va_start macro

See also

va_arg	accesses the next variadic function argument (function macro)
va_copy (C99)	makes a copy of the variadic function arguments (function macro)
va_end	ends traversal of the variadic function arguments (function macro)
va_list	holds the information needed by va_start, va_arg, va_end, and va_copy (typedef)