C Pointers
Pointers are powerful features of C and C++ programming. Before we learn pointers, let's learn
about addresses in C programming.
Address in C
If you have a variable var in your program, &var will give you its address in the memory.
We have used address numerous times while using the scanf() function.
scanf("%d", &var);
Here, the value entered by the user is stored in the address of var variable. Let's take a working
example.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int var = 5;
printf("var: %d\n", var);
// Notice the use of & before var
printf("address of var: %p", &var);
return 0;
}
Output
var: 5
address of var: 2686778
Note: You will probably get a different address when you run the above code.
C Pointers
Pointers (pointer variables) are special variables that are used to store addresses rather than
values.
Pointer Syntax
Here is how we can declare pointers.
int* p;
Here, we have declared a pointer p of int type.
You can also declare pointers in these ways.
int *p1;
int * p2;
Let's take another example of declaring pointers.
int* p1, p2;
Here, we have declared a pointer p1 and a normal variable p2.
Assigning addresses to Pointers
Let's take an example.
int* pc, c;
c = 5;
pc = &c;
Here, 5 is assigned to the c variable. And, the address of c is assigned to the pc pointer.
Get Value of Thing Pointed by Pointers
To get the value of the thing pointed by the pointers, we use the * operator. For example:
int* pc, c;
c = 5;
pc = &c;
printf("%d", *pc); // Output: 5
Here, the address of c is assigned to the pc pointer. To get the value stored in that address, we
used *pc.
Note: In the above example, pc is a pointer, not *pc. You cannot and should not do something
like *pc = &c;
By the way, * is called the dereference operator (when working with pointers). It operates on a
pointer and gives the value stored in that pointer.
Changing Value Pointed by Pointers
Let's take an example.
int* pc, c;
c = 5;
pc = &c;
c = 1;
printf("%d", c); // Output: 1
printf("%d", *pc); // Ouptut: 1
We have assigned the address of c to the pc pointer.
Then, we changed the value of c to 1. Since pc and the address of c is the same, *pc gives us 1.
Let's take another example.
int* pc, c;
c = 5;
pc = &c;
*pc = 1;
printf("%d", *pc); // Ouptut: 1
printf("%d", c); // Output: 1
We have assigned the address of c to the pc pointer.
Then, we changed *pc to 1 using *pc = 1;. Since pc and the address of c is the same, c will be
equal to 1.
Let's take one more example.
int* pc, c, d;
c = 5;
d = -15;
pc = &c; printf("%d", *pc); // Output: 5
pc = &d; printf("%d", *pc); // Ouptut: -15
Initially, the address of c is assigned to the pc pointer using pc = &c;. Since c is 5, *pc gives us
5.
Then, the address of d is assigned to the pc pointer using pc = &d;. Since d is -15, *pc gives us -
15.
Example: Working of Pointers
Let's take a working example.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int* pc, c;
c = 22;
printf("Address of c: %p\n", &c);
printf("Value of c: %d\n\n", c); // 22
pc = &c;
printf("Address of pointer pc: %p\n", pc);
printf("Content of pointer pc: %d\n\n", *pc); // 22
c = 11;
printf("Address of pointer pc: %p\n", pc);
printf("Content of pointer pc: %d\n\n", *pc); // 11
*pc = 2;
printf("Address of c: %p\n", &c);
printf("Value of c: %d\n\n", c); // 2
return 0;
}
Output
Address of c: 2686784
Value of c: 22
Address of pointer pc: 2686784
Content of pointer pc: 22
Address of pointer pc: 2686784
Content of pointer pc: 11
Address of c: 2686784
Value of c: 2
Explanation of the program
1. int* pc, c;
Here, a pointer pc and a normal variable c, both of type int, is created.
Since pc and c are not initialized at initially, pointer pc points to either no address or a random
address. And, variable c has an address but contains random garbage value.
2. c = 22;
This assigns 22 to the variable c. That is, 22 is stored in the memory location of variable c.
3. pc = &c;
This assigns the address of variable c to the pointer pc.
4. c = 11;
This assigns 11 to variable c.
5. *pc = 2;
This change the value at the memory location pointed by the pointer pc to 2.
Common mistakes when working with pointers
Suppose, you want pointer pc to point to the address of c. Then,
int c, *pc;
// pc is address but c is not
pc = c; // Error
// &c is address but *pc is not
*pc = &c; // Error
// both &c and pc are addresses
pc = &c;
// both c and *pc values
*pc = c;
Here's an example of pointer syntax beginners often find confusing.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int c = 5;
int *p = &c;
printf("%d", *p); // 5
return 0;
}
Why didn't we get an error when using int *p = &c;?
It's because
int *p = &c;
is equivalent to
int *p:
p = &c;
In both cases, we are creating a pointer p (not *p) and assigning &c to it.
To avoid this confusion, we can use the statement like this:
int* p = &c;
Relationship Between Arrays and Pointers
An array is a block of sequential data. Let's write a program to print addresses of array elements.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int x[4];
int i;
for(i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
printf("&x[%d] = %p\n", i, &x[i]);
}
printf("Address of array x: %p", x);
return 0;
}
Output
&x[0] = 1450734448
&x[1] = 1450734452
&x[2] = 1450734456
&x[3] = 1450734460
Address of array x: 1450734448
There is a difference of 4 bytes between two consecutive elements of array x. It is because the
size of int is 4 bytes (on our compiler).
Notice that, the address of &x[0] and x is the same. It's because the variable name x points to the
first element of the array.
From the above example, it is clear that &x[0] is equivalent to x. And, x[0] is equivalent to *x.
Similarly,
• &x[1] is equivalent to x+1 and x[1] is equivalent to *(x+1).
• &x[2] is equivalent to x+2 and x[2] is equivalent to *(x+2).
• ...
• Basically, &x[i] is equivalent to x+i and x[i] is equivalent to *(x+i).
Example 1: Pointers and Arrays
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int i, x[6], sum = 0;
printf("Enter 6 numbers: ");
for(i = 0; i < 6; ++i) {
// Equivalent to scanf("%d", &x[i]);
scanf("%d", x+i);
// Equivalent to sum += x[i]
sum += *(x+i);
}
printf("Sum = %d", sum);
return 0;
}
When you run the program, the output will be:
Enter 6 numbers: 2
3
4
4
12
4
Sum = 29
Here, we have declared an array x of 6 elements. To access elements of the array, we have used
pointers.
In most contexts, array names decay to pointers. In simple words, array names are converted to
pointers. That's the reason why you can use pointers to access elements of arrays. However, you
should remember that pointers and arrays are not the same.
Example 2: Arrays and Pointers
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int x[5] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
int* ptr;
// ptr is assigned the address of the third element
ptr = &x[2];
printf("*ptr = %d \n", *ptr); // 3
printf("*(ptr+1) = %d \n", *(ptr+1)); // 4
printf("*(ptr-1) = %d", *(ptr-1)); // 2
return 0;
}
When you run the program, the output will be:
*ptr = 3
*(ptr+1) = 4
*(ptr-1) = 2
In this example, &x[2], the address of the third element, is assigned to the ptr pointer. Hence, 3
was displayed when we printed *ptr.
And, printing *(ptr+1) gives us the fourth element. Similarly, printing *(ptr-1) gives us the
second element.
