can i use c++ compiler to compile c source code? [duplicate]

Question

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What issues can I expect compiling C code with a C++ compiler?

Just curious whether I could make use of a c++ compiler to compile c source code??Anyway is there any compiler that fully support c99 standard yet??

Answer 1

You might have a problem compiling C code with a C++ compiler unless you explicitly restrict the compiler to use C (which all the C++ know how to do). If the compiler uses C++ to compile C code you might have issues if in the C code you use words that are reserved in C++.

For example, C code like this:

int main(void) { int class = 5; return class;}

Will compile fine with a C compiler (or C++ compiler in C mode), but will not compile with a C++ compiler.

Answer 2

C++ is not a superset of C. There are places where they differ, which means some C code will not compile in C++ mode.

As for C99 support, GCC and Clang are the closest. Microsoft does not support C99, and only focuses on C++ (which overlaps with C99 in places).