Interpretation of a pointer variable declaration

Question

1. What does int *(cmp)(char*, char*); mean?

2. What is the difference between char* ptr1; and char *ptr2;

Answer 1

this

int *(cmp)(char*, char*);

is a declaration of a function that has the return type int * and two parameters of the type char *.

You may enclose a declarator in parentheses. So the above function declaration can be also rewritten like

int * ( (cmp)(char*, char*) );

The both declarations are equivalent to

int * cmp(char*, char*);

A declaration of a pointer to such a function will look like

int * ( *p_cmp )(char*, char*) = cmp;

There is no difference between these declarations

char* ptr1;

char *ptr1;

char * ptr1;