Basic Programming

Arrays and Pointers

Prepared by: Inte Christinawati Bu'ulolo

Present and Edited by: Gerry Wowiling
Topics
 Array Definition
 Array Indexing
 Arrays in C
 Single Dimension Array (static)
 Multi Dimension Array (static)
 Array Initialization
 Single Dimension Array (dynamic)
 Multi Dimension Array (dynamic)
 Size of array
 Introduction to pointer

ICB/DASPRO 2
Definition – Array
• A collection of objects of the same type
stored contiguously in memory under one
name
• May be type of any kind of variable
• May even be collection of arrays!

• An array is variable that can store multiple

values (one type)
• For ease of access to any member of array
• For passing to functions as a group
ICB/DASPRO 3
Array Indexing
• Definition:– Array Index – the expression between the square brackets
• Also called an Array Subscript
• In C, all arrays consist of contiguous memory locations.
• An element in an array is accessed by an index.
• Index array always started from 0 to array size - 1
• The lowest address (0) corresponds to the first element and the highest (array
size -1) address to the last element.
• Arrays can have from one to several dimensions.

ICB/DASPRO 4
Arrays in C
• datatype arrayName[arraySize]
• int a[10]
• An array of ten integers
• a[0], A[1], …, A[9]
• double b[20]
• An array of twenty long floating point numbers
• b[0], b[1], …, b[19]
• int c[]
• An array of an unknown number of integers (allowable in a parameter of a
function)
• C[0], C[1], …, C[max-1]
• int d[10][20]
• An array of ten rows, each of which is an array of twenty integers
• D[0][0], D[0][1], …, D[1][0], D[1][1], …, D[9][19]
• Not used so often as arrays of pointers
• Arrays of structs, unions, pointers, etc., are also
allowed
ICB/DASPRO 5
Single Dimension Array
• Declaring single dimension array:
dataType arrayName [arraySize ];
• Example:
int a[10];

• Setting element by array index:

a [0] = 100;

• Accessing element by array index:

printf(“%d”, a [0]);

ICB/DASPRO 6
Single dimensional array: example

ICB/DASPRO 7
Multidimensional Array
• A multidimensional array has more than one
subscript.
• Two-dimensional array has two subscripts, a
three dimensional array has three subscripts,
and so on.
• There is no limit to the number of dimensions
a C array can have.
• Example:
int a[10][2] /*[row][col]*/
A one-dimensional array with 10 elements, each of
which is an array with 2 elements
ICB/DASPRO 8
 Multidimensional
Array: example

ICB/DASPRO 9
Array Initialization
• Array declaration by initializing elements
int arr[] = {10, 20, 30, 40}
• Compiler creates an array of size 4.
• above is same as "int arr[4] = {10, 20, 30, 40}"
• Array declaration by specifying size and initializing elements
int arr[6] = {10, 20, 30, 40}
• Compiler creates an array of size 6, initializes first
• 4 elements as specified by user and rest two elements as 0.
• above is same as "int arr[] = {10, 20, 30, 40, 0, 0}“
• int C[4] = {2, 4, 8, 16, 32};
• Error — compiler detects too many initial values
ICB/DASPRO 10
Initializing a Two-Dimensional Array
char daytab[2][12] = {
{31,28,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31},
{31,29,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31}
}; // daytab

OR

char daytab[2][12] = {
31,28,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31,
31,29,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31
}; // daytab
ICB/DASPRO 11
Caution! Caution! Caution!
• It is the programmer’s responsibility to avoid indexing off the end of
an array
• Likely to corrupt data
• May cause a segmentation fault
• Could expose system to a security hole!
• C does NOT check array bounds
• I.e., whether index points to an element within the array
• Might be high (beyond the end) or negative (before the array starts)

ICB/DASPRO 12
Caution! Caution! Caution!
• It is the programmer’s responsibility to avoid indexing off the end of
an array
• Likely to corrupt data
• May cause a segmentation fault
• Could expose system to a security hole!
• C does NOT check array bounds
• I.e., whether index points to an element within the array
• Might be high (beyond the end) or negative (before the array starts)

ICB/DASPRO 13
Questions
Declaring Arrays: static vs dynamic
• Declaration
• Allocation
• Initialization
• Deallocation

ICB/DASPRO 15
Single dimensional array (dynamic):
example

ICB/DASPRO 16
 Multidimensional
Array (dynamic):
example

ICB/DASPRO 17
Getting Size of Implicit Array
• sizeof operator – returns # of bytes of memory
required by operand
• See p.135 of K&R, §7.7 of D&D
• Examples:–
• sizeof (int) – # of bytes per int
• sizeof (float) – # of bytes per float
• sizeof a – # of bytes in array a (previous slide)
• # of elements in days = (sizeof a)/sizeof(int)

• Must be able to be determined at compile time

• Getting size of dynamically allocated arrays not supported

ICB/DASPRO 18
Getting Size of Implicit Array
• sizeof operator – returns # of bytes of memory
e s e s
required by operand p a r e nth
• See p.135 w i th pe
ty
i z e o o f th e
f
s ze s es
• Examples:– is s i
o p a ren t h e
je ct
n
f –int of the o b
• sizeof (int) – # of bytes e per
o
si z
n s s ize
• sizeof (float) – # of bytesmea per float
• sizeof a – # of bytes in array a (previous slide)
• # of elements in days = (sizeof a)/sizeof(int)

• Must be able to be determined at compile time

• Getting size of dynamically allocated arrays not supported

ICB/DASPRO 19
Questions?
Definition – Pointer
11 ∙∙∙
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2n-1

• A value indicating the number of a data object

• Also called an Address or a Location
• Special variables that are used to store address rather
than values
• Used in machine language to identify which data to
access
• E.g., stack pointer is address of most recent entry of The Stack
• Usually 2, 4, or 8 bytes, depending upon machine
architecture
ICB/DASPRO 21
Pointers in C
'&'
• Used everywhere ry
in a D )
a s b N
m e s e A
• For building useful,
h e sa interesting,
it w i data structures
t b
r ( functions
Not data
• For returning r at ofrom
o pe
• For managing arrays
• '&' unary operator generates a pointer to x
• E.g., scanf("%d", &x);
• E.g., p = &c;
• Operand of '&' must be an l-value — i.e., a legal object on left of assignment operator ('=')
• & is used to access the address
• Unary '*' operator dereferences a pointer
• i.e., gets value pointed to
• E.g. *p refers to value of c (above)
• E.g., *p = x + y; *p = *q;

ICB/DASPRO 22
Declaring Pointers in C
• int *p; — a pointer to an int
• double *q; — a pointer to a double
• char **r; — a pointer to a pointer to a
char
• int *pc, p1; — a pointer of pc and normal variable of p1
• type *s; — a pointer to an object of
type type
• E.g, a struct, union, function, something defined by a typedef, etc.

ICB/DASPRO 23
Pointers in C

5 is assigned to the c variable, and the

address of c is assigned to the pc pointer

The address of c is assigned to pc pointer. To

get the values stored in c address we used *pc

printf(“%d”, pc) -> output = ?

printf(“%d”, *pc) -> output = ?

ICB/DASPRO 24
Common Mistakes

The above code will not error!

Equivalent to:
int* pc

*pc

ICB/DASPRO 25
Pointer Arithmetic
• int *p, *q;
q = p + 1;
• Construct a pointer to the next integer after *p and assign it to
q
• double *p, *r;
int n;
r = p + n;
• Construct a pointer to a double that is n doubles beyond *p,
and assign it to r
• n may be negative

ICB/DASPRO 26
Pointer Arithmetic (continued)

• long int *p, *q;

p++; q--;
• Increment p to point to the next long int; decrement q to point to the
previous long int
• float *p, *q;
int n;
n = p – q;
• n is the number of floats between *p and *q; i.e., what would be added to q
to get p

ICB/DASPRO 27
Pointer Arithmetic (continued)
c k s th a t the id
is v al
e r che ointer
ev p
C n ulting
res
• long int *p, *q;
p++; q--;
• Increment p to point to the next long int; decrement q to point to the
previous long int
• float *p, *q;
int n;
n = p – q;
• n is the number of floats between *p and *q; i.e., what would be added to q
to get p

ICB/DASPRO 28
Why introduce pointers in the middle of a lesson
on arrays?
• Arrays and pointers are closely related in C
• In fact, they are essentially the same thing!
• Esp. when used as parameters of functions
• int A[10];
int *p;
• Type of A is int *
• p = A; and A = p; are legal assignments
• *p refers to A[0]
*(p + n) refers to A[n]
• p = &A[5]; is the same as p = A + 5;
ICB/DASPRO 29
Arrays and Pointers (continued)

• double A[10]; vs. double *A;

• Only difference:–
• double A[10] sets aside ten units of memory, each large enough to hold a
double, and A is initialized to point to the zeroth unit.
• double *A sets aside one pointer-sized unit of memory, not initialized
• You are expected to come up with the memory elsewhere!
• Note:– all pointer variables are the same size in any given machine
architecture
• Regardless of what types they point to

ICB/DASPRO 30
Note
• C does not assign arrays to each other
• E.g,
• double A[10];
double B[10];

A = B;
• assigns the pointer value B to the pointer value A
• Original contents of array A are untouched (and possibly unreachable!)

ICB/DASPRO 31
Questions?