A pointer is a variable that stores the address of another variable.
Features of Pointers
Pointer saves the memory space.
The execution time of a pointer is faster because of direct access to memory location.
With the help of pointers, the memory is accessed efficiently, i.e., memory is allocated and deallocated dynamically.
Pointers are used with data structures.
Declaring a pointer
int *p;
It means ‘p’ is a pointer variable that holds the address of another integer variable.
Initialization of a pointer
Address operator (&) is used to initialize a pointer variable.
For example,
int qty = 175; int *p; p= &qty;
Accessing a variable through its pointer
To access the value of the variable, the indirection operator (*) is used.
Program
#include<stdio.h>
void main(){
//Declaring variables and pointer//
int a=2;
int *p;
//Declaring relation between variable and pointer//
p=&a;
//Printing required example statements//
printf("Size of the integer is %d\n",sizeof (int));//4//
printf("Address of %d is %d\n",a,p);//Address value//
printf("Value of %d is %d\n",a,*p);//2//
printf("Value of next address location of %d is %d\n",a,*(p+1));//Garbage value from (p+1) address//
printf("Address of next address location of %d is %d\n",a,(p+1));//Address value +4//
//Typecasting the pointer//
//Initializing and declaring character data type//
//a=2 = 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000010//
char *p0;
p0=(char*)p;
//Printing required statements//
printf("Size of the character is %d\n",sizeof(char));//1//
printf("Address of %d is %d\n",a,p0);//Address Value(p)//
printf("Value of %d is %d\n",a,*p0);//First byte of value a - 2//
printf("Value of next address location of %d is %d\n",a,*(p0+1));//Second byte of value a - 0//
printf("Address of next address location of %d is %d\n",a,(p0+1));//Address value(p)+1//
}Output
Size of the integer is 4 Address of 2 is 6422028 Value of 2 is 2 Value of next address location of 2 is 10818512 Address of next address location of 2 is 6422032 Size of the character is 1 Address of 2 is 6422028 Value of 2 is 2 Value of next address location of 2 is 0 Address of next address location of 2 is 6422029