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ITC Lect 18 (Pointers and Strings - II)

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7 views12 pages

ITC Lect 18 (Pointers and Strings - II)

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Muhammad Faizan Khan
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

Pointers and Strings - II

Dr. Zahid Halim

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

Example
int main() {
int x = 10;
int* y = &x;
cout << *y;
}
Prints the value 10 – the value in the variable at the address stored in y
In other words, the value to which y points

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

Another Example
int main() {
int x = 10;
int* y = &x;
x = 20;
cout << *y;
}
Prints the value 20

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

A Third Example
int main() {
int x = 10;
int* y = &x;
*y = 20;
cout<<x<<*y;
}
Prints: 20, 20 – we can use *y as a left-hand value, which changes the contents
of the address that y points to

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

A Last Example

int main() {
int x = 10;
int* y = &x;
y = 20;
cout<<x<<*y;
}
Prints: 10, ??? – the second term will be what ever happens to be at
bytes 20, 21, 22 and 23 – could be junk.
It will look at all four bytes because it’s a pointer to an int – which is a
four-byte data structure

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic


• Pointer arithmetic
– Increment/decrement pointer (++ or --)
– Add/subtract an integer to/from a pointer( + or += , - or -=)
– Pointers may be subtracted from each other
– Pointer arithmetic is meaningless unless performed on an array
• 5 element int array on a machine using 4 byte ints
– vPtr points to first element v[ 0 ], which is at location 3000
• vPtr = 3000
location
– vPtr += 2; sets vPtr to 3008 3000 3004 3008 3012 3016

• vPtr points to v[ 2 ] v[0] v[1] v[2] v[3] v[4]

pointer variable vPtr

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic


• Subtracting pointers
– Returns the number of elements between two addresses
vPtr2 = v[ 2 ];
vPtr = v[ 0 ];
vPtr2 - vPtr == 2
• Pointer comparison
– Test which pointer points to the higher numbered array element
– Test if a pointer points to 0 (NULL)
if ( vPtr == ‘0’ )
statement

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic


• Pointers assignment
– If not the same type, a cast operator must be used
– Exception: pointer to void (type void *)
• Generic pointer, represents any type
• No casting needed to convert a pointer to void pointer
• void pointers cannot be dereferenced

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

The Relationship Between Pointers and Arrays


• Arrays and pointers closely related
– Array name like constant pointer
– Pointers can do array subscripting operations
– Having declared an array b[ 5 ] and a pointer bPtr
• bPtr is equal to b
bptr == b
• bptr is equal to the address of the first element of b
bptr == &b[ 0 ]

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

The Relationship Between Pointers and Arrays


• Accessing array elements with pointers
– Element b[ n ] can be accessed by *( bPtr + n )
• Called pointer/offset notation
– Array itself can use pointer arithmetic.
• b[ 3 ] same as *(b + 3)
– Pointers can be subscripted (pointer/subscript notation)
• bPtr[ 3 ] same as b[ 3 ]

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

Arrays of Pointers
• Arrays can contain pointers
– Commonly used to store an array of strings
char *suit[ 4 ] = {"Hearts", "Diamonds",
"Clubs", "Spades" };
– Each element of suit is a pointer to a char * (a string)
– The strings are not in the array, only pointers to the strings are in the
array
suit[0] ’H’ ’e’ ’a’ ’r’ ’t’ ’s’ ’\
suit[1] ’D’ ’i’ ’a’ ’m’ ’o’ ’n’ 0’
’d’ ’s’ ’\
suit[2] ’C’ ’l’ ’u’ ’b’ ’s’ ’\ 0’

suit[3] ’S’ ’p’ ’a’ ’d’ ’e’ 0’


’s’ ’\
0’
– suit array has a fixed size, but strings can be of any size

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi


Lecture 18: Pointers and Strings CS 101: Introduction to Computing

References
Dietal and Dietal : How to Program C++
3rd Edition

Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Topi

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