C - Pointers
C - Pointers
C - Pointers
Pointers in C are easy and fun to learn. Some C programming tasks are performed
more easily with pointers, and other tasks, such as dynamic memory allocation,
cannot be performed without using pointers. So it becomes necessary to learn
pointers to become a perfect C programmer. Let's start learning them in simple and
easy steps.
As you know, every variable is a memory location and every memory location has its
address defined which can be accessed using ampersand (&) operator, which denotes
an address in memory. Consider the following example, which prints the address of
the variables defined −
Live Demo
#include <stdio.h>
int main () {
int var1;
char var2[10];
return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −
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type *var-name;
Here, type is the pointer's base type; it must be a valid C data type and var-name is
the name of the pointer variable. The asterisk * used to declare a pointer is the same
asterisk used for multiplication. However, in this statement the asterisk is being used
to designate a variable as a pointer. Take a look at some of the valid pointer
declarations −
The actual data type of the value of all pointers, whether integer, float, character, or
otherwise, is the same, a long hexadecimal number that represents a memory
address. The only difference between pointers of different data types is the data type
of the variable or constant that the pointer points to.
Live Demo
#include <stdio.h>
int main () {
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return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −
NULL Pointers
It is always a good practice to assign a NULL value to a pointer variable in case you
do not have an exact address to be assigned. This is done at the time of variable
declaration. A pointer that is assigned NULL is called a null pointer.
The NULL pointer is a constant with a value of zero defined in several standard
libraries. Consider the following program −
Live Demo
#include <stdio.h>
int main () {
return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −
In most of the operating systems, programs are not permitted to access memory at
address 0 because that memory is reserved by the operating system. However, the
memory address 0 has special significance; it signals that the pointer is not intended
to point to an accessible memory location. But by convention, if a pointer contains the
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To check for a null pointer, you can use an 'if' statement as follows −
Pointers in Detail
Pointers have many but easy concepts and they are very important to C programming.
The following important pointer concepts should be clear to any C programmer −
1 Pointer arithmetic
There are four arithmetic operators that can be used in pointers: ++, --, +, -
2 Array of pointers
You can define arrays to hold a number of pointers.
3 Pointer to pointer
C allows you to have pointer on a pointer and so on.
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