I use the "right-to-left" style myself. To me, the qualifier (in this case, const), applies to the item to the right. This could be confusing: const char

I use the "right-to-left" style myself. To me, the qualifier (in this case, const), applies to the item to the right. This could be confusing: const char *const ptr; The first const applies to the char, but the second one to the pointer itself. Being consistent: char const *const ptr; The first const applies to the item to its left---char. The second const applies to the item to its left---the pointer. To recap: char *ptr1; // modifiable pointer to modifiable data char const *ptr2; // modifiable pointer to const data char *const ptr3; // const pointer to modifiable data char const *const ptr4; // const pointer to const data