How to understand these complicated pointer declarations? [duplicate]

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Complex Declarations

Can someone help me to break this down, and help me to understand?

1) char *(*(*a[N])( ))( );

2) char (*开发者_开发问答 (*x[3]) ( ))[5];

3) char (*(*f( ))[ ]) ( );

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The golden rule is. just use http://cdecl.org/:

1. declare a as array 5 of pointer to function returning pointer to function returning pointer to char (I replaced N with 5)

2. declare x as array 3 of pointer to function returning pointer to array 5 of char

3. declare f as function returning pointer to array of pointer to function returning char

To understand how to interpret them yourself, this is a very good explanation from MSDN: Interpreting More Complex Declarators.