Pointer arithmetic is used to implement arithmetic operations like addition subtraction, increment etc. in C language. There are four pointer arithmetic such as addition, subtraction, increment and decrement. In 32-bit machine, it increments or decrement the value by 2 and it will add or subtract 2* number. In 64-bit machine, it increments or decrement the value by 4 and it will add or subtract 4* number.
Here is an example of pointer arithmetic in C language,
Example
#include<stdio.h>
int main() {
int val = 28;
int *pt;
pt = &val;
printf("Address of pointer : %u\n",pt);
pt = pt + 5;
printf("Addition to pointer : %u\n",pt);
pt = pt - 5;
printf("Subtraction from pointer : %u\n",pt);
pt = pt + 1;
printf("Increment to pointer : %u\n",pt);
pt = pt - 1;
printf("Decrement to pointer : %u\n",pt);
return 0;
}Output
Address of pointer : 3938439860 Addition to pointer : 3938439880 Subtraction from pointer : 3938439860 Increment to pointer : 3938439864 Decrement to pointer : 3938439860
In the above program, the arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction etc.) are applied to the pointer variable *pt.
int *pt;
pt = &val;
printf("Address of pointer : %u\n",pt);
pt = pt + 5;
printf("Addition to pointer : %u\n",pt);
pt = pt - 5;
printf("Subtraction from pointer : %u\n",pt);
pt = pt + 1;
printf("Increment to pointer : %u\n",pt);
pt = pt - 1;
printf("Decrement to pointer : %u\n",pt);