CH-230-A

Programming in C and C++

C/C++

Lecture 4

Dr. Kinga Lipskoch

Fall 2019
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Pointers and Arrays

I Ex: char array[5];

char *array_ptr1 = &array[0];
char *array_ptr2 = array;
// the same as above
I C allows pointer arithmetic:
I Addition
I Subtraction
I *array_ptr equivalent to array[0]
I *(array_ptr+1) equivalent to array[1]
I *(array_ptr+2) equivalent to array[2]
I What is (*array_ptr)+1?

C/C++ Fall 2019 2 / 26

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Locating a Matrix Element in the Memory

I Consider the following

int table[ROW][COL];
where ROW and COL are constants
I table holds the address of the pointer to the first element
I *table holds the address of the first element
I What is the address of table[i][j]?
*(table + (i * COL + j))
I Find out the formula for an arbitrary multidimensional array

C/C++ Fall 2019 3 / 26

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Pointer Arithmetic with Arrays

1 # include < stdio .h >
2 # define ROW 2
3 # define COL 3
4 int main () {
5 int arr [ ROW ][ COL ] = { {1 , 2 , 3} , {11 , 12 , 13} };
6 int i = 1;
7 int j = 2;
8 int * p = ( int *) arr ; // needs explicit cast
9 printf ( " Address of [1][2]: % p \ n " , & arr [1][2]) ;
10 printf ( " Address of [1][2]: % p \ n " , p + ( i * COL + j ) ) ;
11 printf ( " Value of [1][2]: % d \ n " , arr [1][2]) ;
12 printf ( " Value of [1][2]: % d \ n " , *( p + ( i * COL + j ) ) ) ;
13 printf ( " \ n " ) ;
14 printf ( " Address of [0][0]: % p \ n " , p + (0 * COL + 0) ) ;
15 printf ( " Address of [0][1]: % p \ n " , p + (0 * COL + 1) ) ;
16 printf ( " Address of [0][2]: % p \ n " , p + (0 * COL + 2) ) ;
17 printf ( " Address of [1][0]: % p \ n " , p + (1 * COL + 0) ) ;
18 printf ( " Address of [1][1]: % p \ n " , p + (1 * COL + 1) ) ;
19 printf ( " Address of [1][2]: % p \ n " , p + (1 * COL + 2) ) ;
20 return 0;
21 }
C/C++ Fall 2019 4 / 26
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Variably Sized Multidimensional Arrays

I Unidimensional arrays can be allocated ”on the fly” using the

malloc() function
I Possible also for multidimensional arrays, but more tricky
I Underlying idea: a pointer can point to the first element of a
sequence
I A pointer to a pointer can then point to the first element of a
sequence of pointers
I And each of those pointers can point to first element of a
sequence

C/C++ Fall 2019 5 / 26

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Pointers to Pointers for Multidimensional Arrays (1)

I Consider the following table

char **table; char *
char *
I We can make table to point to an array of char *
pointers to char char *
table = (char **) malloc(sizeof(char *) char *
* N); char *
char *
I Every element in the array of N rows is a char *
char* char *

C/C++ Fall 2019 6 / 26

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Pointers to Pointers for Multidimensional Arrays (2)

I Every pointer in the array can in turn point to an array

I In this way a two-dimensional array with N rows and M
columns has been allocated

1 for ( i = 0; i < N ; i ++)

2 table [ i ] = ( char *) malloc ( sizeof ( char ) * M ) ;

C/C++ Fall 2019 7 / 26

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Pointers to Pointers for Multidimensional Arrays (3)

char **table

char * char char char char char

char *
char *
char *
char *
char *
char *
char *
char *

To access a generic element in the dynamically allocated matrix a

matrix-like syntax can be used. Let us see why ...

C/C++ Fall 2019 8 / 26

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Allocating Space for a Multidimensional Array (1)

Memory
char
char
char
0x3000 char
char **table char
char
char
char* char
char
char* char
char
char* char
char* char
char
char
char
char
char
char
char
char
char
Case i=0 char
char
1 for ( i = 0; i < 4; i ++)
2 table [ i ] = ( char *) malloc ( sizeof ( char ) * 5) ;

C/C++ Fall 2019 9 / 26

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Allocating Space for a Multidimensional Array (2)

Memory
char
char
char
0x3000 char
char **table char
char
char
char* char
0x3005 char
char* char
char
char* char
char* char
char
char
char
char
char
char
char
char
char
Case i=1 char
char
1 for ( i = 0; i < 4; i ++)
2 table [ i ] = ( char *) malloc ( sizeof ( char ) * 5) ;

C/C++ Fall 2019 10 / 26

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Allocating Space for a Multidimensional Array (3)

Memory
char
char
0x3000
char
char **table char
char
char
char
char* char
0x3005 char
char* char
char
char* char
char* char
0x3010 char
char
char
char
char
char
char
char
char
Case i=2 char
char
1 for ( i = 0; i < 4; i ++)
2 table [ i ] = ( char *) malloc ( sizeof ( char ) * 5) ;

C/C++ Fall 2019 11 / 26

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Allocating Space for a Multidimensional Array (4)

Memory
char
char
char
0x3000 char
char **table char
char
char
char* char
0x3005 char
char* char
char
char* char
char* char
0x3010 char
char
char
char
char
0x3015 char
char
char
char
Case i=3 char
char
1 for ( i = 0; i < 4; i ++)
2 table [ i ] = ( char *) malloc ( sizeof ( char ) * 5) ;

C/C++ Fall 2019 12 / 26

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Drawing Memory in a Different Way: The Result is a Table

char **table

char* char char char char char

char* char char char char char
char* char char char char char
char* char char char char char

1 for ( i = 0; i < 4; i ++)

2 table [ i ] = ( char *) malloc ( sizeof ( char ) * 5) ;

C/C++ Fall 2019 13 / 26

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De-allocating a Pointer to Pointer Structure

I Everything you have allocated via malloc() must be

de-allocated via free()
I Ex: De-allocation of a 2D array with N elements

1 int i ;
2 for ( i = 0; i < N ; i ++)
3 free ( table [ i ]) ;
4 free ( table ) ;

C/C++ Fall 2019 14 / 26

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Working with 2D Dynamic Arrays

1 # include < stdio .h >
2 # include < stdlib .h >
3 void s e t _ a l l _ e l e m e n t s ( int ** arr , int numrow , int numcol ) {
4 int r , c ;
5 for ( r = 0; r < numrow ; r ++)
6 for ( c = 0; c < numcol ; c ++)
7 arr [ r ][ c ] = r * c ; // some value ...
8 }
9 int main () {
10 int ** table , row ;
11 table = ( int **) malloc ( sizeof ( int *) * 3) ;
12 if ( table == NULL )
13 exit (1) ;
14 for ( row = 0; row < 3; row ++) {
15 table [ row ] = ( int *) malloc ( sizeof ( int ) * 4) ;
16 if ( table [ row ] == NULL )
17 exit (1) ;
18 }
19 s e t _ a l l _ e l e m e nt s ( table , 3 , 4) ;
20 }

C/C++ Fall 2019 15 / 26

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Static vs. Dynamic Array Allocation (1)

I int a[n][m] leads to an index offset calculation using the

known array dimensions
I int **a treats a as an array int *[] and once indexed the
result as an array of int []
I Statically allocated arrays occupy less memory
I Pointers to pointers allow tables where every row can have its
own dimension
I One can have pointers to pointers to pointers (e.g., int ***)
to have 3D data structures

C/C++ Fall 2019 16 / 26

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Static vs. Dynamic Array Allocation (2)

I Static allocation
I int a[100][50]; int b[n][m];
I Syntax for allocation is easy
I Release/reallocation not possible at runtime
I Allocated memory is contiguous
I Dynamic allocation
I int **a; int *b[100], int ***c; ...
I Call(s) of malloc is needed
I Syntax for allocation is more difficult
I Release/reallocation possible at runtime using free, realloc
I Allocated memory can be, but in general is not contiguous
I Passing arrays to functions: static_dyn_allocation.c
I Further reading/study:
https://www.cse.msu.edu/~cse251/lecture11.pdf
C/C++ Fall 2019 17 / 26
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The const Keyword

I The modifier const can be applied to variable declarations

I It states that the variable cannot be changed
I i.e., it is not a variable but a constant
I When applied to arrays it means that the elements cannot be
changed

C/C++ Fall 2019 18 / 26

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const Examples

1 const double e = 2.718 281828 45905;

2 const char str []= " Hello world " ;
3 e = 3; /* error */
4 str [0] = ’h ’; /* error */

I You can also use #define of the preprocessor

I But defines do not have type checking, while constants do

C/C++ Fall 2019 19 / 26

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More const Examples

I const char *text = "Hello";

I Does not mean that the variable text is constant
I The data pointed to by text is a constant
I While the data cannot be changed, the pointer can be changed
I char *const name = "Test";
I name is a constant pointer
I While the pointer is constant, the data the pointer points to
may be changed
I const char *const title = "Title";
I Neither the pointer nor the data may be changed

C/C++ Fall 2019 20 / 26

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Dealing with Big Projects

I Functions are a first step to break big programs in small

logical units
I A further step consists in breaking the source into many files
I Smaller files are easy to handle
I Objects sharing a context can be put together and easily reused
I C allows to put together separately compiled files to have one
executable

C/C++ Fall 2019 21 / 26

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Declarations and Definitions

I Declaration: introduces an object. After declaration the

object can be used
I Example: functions’ prototypes
I Definition: specifies the structure of an object
I Example: function definition
I Declarations can appear many times, definitions just once

C/C++ Fall 2019 22 / 26

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Building from Multiple Sources

I C compilers can compile multiple sources files into one

executable
I For every declaration there must be one definition in one of
the compiled files
I Indeed also libraries play a role
I This control is performed by the linker
I gcc -o name file1.c file2.c file3.c

C/C++ Fall 2019 23 / 26

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Libraries

I Libraries are collection of compiled definitions

I You include header files to get the declarations of objects in
libraries
I At linking time libraries are searched for unresolved
declarations
I Some libraries are included by gcc even if you do not
specifically ask for them

C/C++ Fall 2019 24 / 26

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Linking Math Functions: Example

1 # include < math .h >
2 # include < stdio .h >
3
4 int main () {
5 double n ;
6 double sn ;
7

8 scanf ( " % lf \ n " , & n ) ; /* double needs % lf */

9 sn = sqrt ( n ) ;
10 /* conversion from double to float ok */
11 printf ( " Square root of % f is % f \ n " , n , sn ) ;
12 return 0;
13 }
14
15 gcc - lm -o compute compute . c

C/C++ Fall 2019 25 / 26

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Compilers, Linkers and More

I Different compilers differ in many details

I Libraries names, ways to link against them, types of linking
I Check your documentation
I But preprocessing, compilation and linking are common steps

C/C++ Fall 2019 26 / 26