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QB Unit Iv

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16 views6 pages

QB Unit Iv

FOC

Uploaded by

VISHNUKUMAR
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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UNIT – IV: POINTERS AND ARRAYS

Pointers and addresses, Pointers and Function Arguments, Pointers and Arrays, Address Arithmetic,
character Pointers and Functions, Pointer Arrays, Pointer to Pointer, Multi-dimensional arrays, Strings,
Initialisation of Pointer Arrays, Command line arguments, Pointers to functions, complicated
declarations..
1. Define a pointer.
A pointer is a variable whose value is the address of another variable, i.e., direct address of
the memory location. Like any variable or constant, you must declare a pointer before using it
to store any variable address. The general form of a pointer variable declaration is −
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.
Example:
int *ip; /* pointer to an integer */
double *dp; /* pointer to a double */

2. How to Use Pointers?

(a) We define a pointer variable,


(b) assign the address of a variable to a pointer and
(c) finally access the value at the address available in the pointer variable.
This is done by using unary operator * that returns the value of the variable located at the
address specified by its operand.
Example:
#include <stdio.h>

int main () {

int var = 20; /* actual variable declaration */


int *ip; /* pointer variable declaration */

ip = &var; /* store address of var in pointer variable*/

printf("Address of var variable: %x\n", &var );

/* address stored in pointer variable */


printf("Address stored in ip variable: %x\n", ip );

/* access the value using the pointer */


printf("Value of *ip variable: %d\n", *ip );

return 0;
}
3. What is a NULL Pointers

A pointer that is assigned with NULL is called a null pointer.


The NULL pointer is a constant with a value of zero defined in several standard libraries.
Example:

#include <stdio.h>

int main () {

int *ptr = NULL;

printf("The value of ptr is : %x\n", ptr );

return 0;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −
The value of ptr is 0

4. How to pass a pointer to a function as an argument.


Following is a simple example where we pass an unsigned long pointer to a function and
change the value inside the function which reflects back in the calling function.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
void getSeconds(unsigned long *val);
int main () {
unsigned long sec;
getSeconds( &sec );
/* print the actual value */
printf("Number of seconds: %ld\n", sec );
return 0;
}

void getSeconds(unsigned long *val) {


/* get the current number of seconds */
*val = time( NULL );
return;
}

5. How to pass an Array as a function Argument:

The function, which can accept a pointer, can also accept an array as shown in the following
example.

#include <stdio.h>

/* function declaration */
double getAverage(int *arr, int size);

int main () {

/* an int array with 5 elements */


int balance[5] = {1000, 2, 3, 17, 50};
double avg;

/* pass pointer to the array as an argument */


avg = getAverage( balance, 5 ) ;

/* output the returned value */


printf("Average value is: %f\n", avg );
return 0;
}

double getAverage(int *arr, int size) {

int i, sum = 0;
double avg;

for (i = 0; i < size; ++i) {


sum += arr[i];
}

avg = (double)sum / size;


return avg;
}

6. List various pointer arithmetic operations in C.

7. How to define a two-dimensional array using pointers in C


void main()
{
int *p,a[5][5],i,j;
p=&a;
for (i=0;i<2;i++)
{
for(j=0;j<2;j++)
{
scanf("%d",((p+i)+j));
printf("%d ",*((p+i)+j));
}
printf("\n");
}
}
In the above coding, p is a pointer and a is a two dimensional array. The array element
a’s address is assigned to the pointer p and p will point to the starting position of the
array a. Row of the array a is accessed by the index variable i and the column of the
array is accessed by the index variable j. (p+i) is specifying the position of ith row
from starting point of the pointer p and ((P+i)+j) is specifying the jth column in the ith
row from the starting point of the pointer p.
a[5][5]
p

8. How to define a pointer to a function?

In the below example, the sum() function is assigned to the pointer s having two
parameters of type integer. The summation value returned by the pointer s pointing to
the function sum() will be printed as output of this coding.

int sum(int,int);

void main()
{
int (*s)(int,int);
int x=10,y=10;
s=&sum;
printf("The sum = %d",(*s)(x,y));
}

int sum(int x,int y)


{
printf("%d ",x+y);
return(x+y);
}
9. What is command line arguments in C?
The command line arguments are handled using main() function arguments
where argc refers to the number of arguments passed, and argv[] is a pointer array
which points to each argument passed to the program.
void main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
printf("\nFile Name %s",argv[0]);
printf("\nFirst Argument %s",argv[1]);
printf("\nLast Argument %s",argv[argc-1]);
}

If the inputs are given as


File1 10 20 30 40
Output will be
File Name File1
First Argument 10
Last Argument 40

10. How to define a pointer to a pointer?

void main()
{
int *a,**b, x=10;
a=&x;
b=&a;
printf("Address of x = %x Value of x = %d\n",&x,x);
printf("Address in a = %x Address of a = %x Value of a = %d\n",a,&a,*a);
printf("Address in b = %x Address of b = %x Value of b = %d\n",b,&b,**b);
}

In the above program, a is a pointer (*a) and b is a pointer to a pointer (**b) and x is a
variable assigned with its initial value as 10. Here, address of x is assigned to the pointer a
and the address of the pointer a is assigned to the pointer b. Now, b is pointing a pointer
variable which is referred as pointer to pointer. Through the pointer b, the value of x can be
accessed
Address of x1000
x
a 10
Address of a 2000 1000

b
Address of b2500 2000

Part B
1. Write short notes on pointers in C.
2. What are the various arithmetic operations performed on a pointer variable. Explain
with examples.
3. Write short notes on
i. Pointer to a function
ii. Pointer to a pointer
4. Explain in detail about command line arguments.
5. Compare pointers with arrays. Justify how pointers are better than array.

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