C++ Primer, Fifth Edition

6.7. Pointers to Functions

A function pointer is just that—a pointer that denotes a function rather than an object. Like any other pointer, a function pointer points to a particular type. A function’s type is determined by its return type and the types of its parameters. The function’s name is not part of its type. For example:

// compares lengths of two stringsbool lengthCompare(const string &, const string &);

has type bool(const string&, const string&). To declare a pointer that can point at this function, we declare a pointer in place of the function name:

// pf points to a function returning bool that takes two const string referencesbool (*pf)(const string &, const string &);  // uninitialized

Starting from the name we are declaring, we ...