error: expected ‘;’, ‘,’ or ‘)’ before ‘&’ token

Question

I get this error in a C header file in this line :

char * getFechaHora(time_t & tiempoPuro);

In a C source code file i am including the header file and giving the function an implementation

char * getFechaHora(time_t &tiempoPuro){...}

also in my header file i am including correctly the "time.h" library.

Answer 1

char * getFechaHora(time_t & tiempoPuro);

This is not C. C has no reference (&).

Answer 2

In C, if char * getFechaHora, this is your function and the two (time_t & tiempoPuro) are arguments you should declare the function as:

char * getFechaHora(*type* time_t, *type* tiempoPuro);

else if the second is a variable, declare as

char * getFechaHora(time_t *tiempoPuro);

Answer 3

The problem is your use of the & symbol. Passing by reference in that way is not supported in C. To accomplish this in C, you need to pass in a pointer to the variable like so:

    char * getFechaHora(time_t * tiempoPuro);

Technically, you are still passing by value (passing the value of the pointer), but it will accomplish the same thing (modifying the value pointed to by the tiempoPuro variable local to the getFechaHora function will change the value of the variable local to the function it was called from).

Reference: Pass by Reference