What is "typedef"

n. 1 (context computing English) A statement that declares a name for a data type. 2 (context computing English) A name that has been declared by such a statement.

typedef is a reserved keyword in the C and C++ programming languages. It is used to create an alias name for another data type. As such, it is often used to simplify the syntax of declaring complex data structures consisting of struct and union types, but is just as common in providing specific descriptive type names for integer data types of varying lengths. Conventions, such as in the C standard library or POSIX, often recommend to end the name of a typedef type with '_t', for example as in size_t and time_t.