don't do this

#include <cstdarg>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int total (int num_args, ...)
{
    va_list ap;
    int total = 0;
    va_start(ap, num_args);
    for (int x =0; x < num_args; x++)
        total += va_arg(ap, int);
    va_end(ap);
    return total;
}

int main ()
{
    cout << total(9, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) << endl;
    return 0;
}