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More On Pointers

This document discusses pointers and arrays in C programming. It covers how pointers and arrays are related, how arrays can be passed to functions by passing a pointer to the array, and how multidimensional arrays are stored in memory in row-major format. It also discusses pointers to pointers, dynamic memory allocation using malloc() and free(), and pointers to functions which allow functions to be called indirectly through a function pointer.

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WANGOH DAVID TENPORPUH
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22 views14 pages

More On Pointers

This document discusses pointers and arrays in C programming. It covers how pointers and arrays are related, how arrays can be passed to functions by passing a pointer to the array, and how multidimensional arrays are stored in memory in row-major format. It also discusses pointers to pointers, dynamic memory allocation using malloc() and free(), and pointers to functions which allow functions to be called indirectly through a function pointer.

Uploaded by

WANGOH DAVID TENPORPUH
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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6.

More on Pointers

14th September
IIT Kanpur

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 1


Pointers and arrays
• Pointers and arrays are tightly coupled.
char a[] = “Hello World”;
char *p = &a[0];

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 2


Pointers and arrays contd..
• Name of the array is synonymous with the
address of the first element of the array.

int *p;
int sample[10];
p = sample; // same as p = &sample[0];

int *p;
int sample[10];
p = sample;
p[5] = 100; // Both these statements
*(p+5) = 100; // do the same thing

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 3


Pointers and function arguments
• Functions only receive copies of the variables passed
to them.
{program: swap_attempt_1.c}
• A function needs to know the address of a variable if it
is to affect the original variable
{program: swap_attempt_2.c}
• Large items like strings or arrays cannot be passed to
functions either.
printf(“hello world\n”);

• What is passed is the address of “hello world\n” in the


memory.

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 4


Passing single dimension arrays to
functions
• In C, you cannot pass the entire data of the array as an
argument to a function. int main() {
– How to pass array then? int sample[10];
func1(sample);
• Pass a pointer to the array. …
}
void func1(int *x) {
…
}
void func1(int x[10]) {
…
}
void func1(int x[]) {
…
}

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 5


2-Dimensional Arrays (Array of arrays)
int d[3][2];

Access the point 1, 2 of the array:


d[1][2]

Initialize (without loops):


int d[3][2] = {{1, 2}, {4, 5}, {7, 8}};

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 6


More about 2-Dimensional arrays
A Multidimensional array is stored in a row major format.
A two dimensional case:
 next memory element to d[0][3] is d[1][0]

d[0][0] d[0][1] d[0][2] d[0][3]


d[1][0] d[1][1] d[1][2] d[1][3]
d[2][0] d[2][1] d[2][2] d[2][3]

What about memory addresses sequence of a three


dimensional array?
 next memory element to t[0][0][0] is t[0][0][1]
C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 7
Multidimensional Arrays
• Syntax
type array_name[size1][size2]…[sizeN];

e.g
int a[3][6][4][8];

size of array = 3 x 6 x 4 x 8 x 4 bytes

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 8


Arrays of Pointers
int *x[10];

Declares an array of int pointers. Array has 10


pointers.

Assign address to a pointer in array


x[2] = &var;

To find the value of var,


int i =*x[2];

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 9


Pointer to Pointer
• Declaration
– Place an additional asterisk
double **newbalance;

newbalance is a pointer to a double pointer.

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 10


Pointer to Pointer contd..
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
int x, *p, **q;
x = 10;
p = &x;
q = &p;

printf(“%d %d %d\n”, x, *p, **q);


return 0;
}

{program: pointers.c}
C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 11
Dynamic Memory Allocation
• To allocate memory at run time.
• malloc(), calloc()
– both return a void*
• you’ll need to typecast each time.
char *p;
p = (char *)malloc(1000); /*get 1000 byte space */

int *i;
i = (int *)malloc(1000*sizeof(int));

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 12


Dynamic Memory Allocation contd..
• To free memory
• free()
– free(ptr) frees the space allocated to the pointer
ptr

int *i;
i = (int *)malloc(1000*sizeof(int));
.
.
.
free(i);

C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 13


Pointers to functions
• A function pointer stores the address of the
function.
• Function pointers allow:
– call the function using a pointer
– functions to be passed as arguments to other
functions
return_type (*function_name)(type arg1, type
arg2…)
{program: function_pointer.c}
C Course, Programming club, Fall 2008 14

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