Principles of Programming using C (BPOPS103/203) Module 4: Strings and Pointers

MODULE – 4

Strings and Pointers: Introduction, string taxonomy, operations on strings, miscellaneous string
and character functions, arrays of strings.

Pointers: Introduction to pointers, declaring pointer variables, Types of pointers, passing arguments
to functions using pointers.

Textbook: Chapter 13.1-13.6, 14 -14.7

CHAPTER 2 POINTERS

2.1 UNDERSTANDING THE COMPUTER’S MEMORY

 The computer's memory is a sequential collection of storage cells as shown in the below
Fig.
 Each cell, commonly known as a byte, has a number called address associated with it.
 Typically, the addresses are numbered consecutively, starting from zero.
 The last address depends on the memory size.
 A computer system having 64 K memory will have its last address as 65,535.

Memory Cell Address

0
1
2
3
4
5
.
.
.
65535
Fig : Memory Organisation

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 Principles of Programming using C (BPOPS103/203) Module 4: Strings and Pointers

2.2 INTRODUCTION TO POINTERS

 A pointer is a derived data type in C.

 A pointer is variable that contains the memory location of another variable.
 Pointers contain memory addresses as their values.
 Every variable in C has a name and a value associated with it.
 When a variable is declared, a specific block of memory within the computer is allocated
to hold the value of that variable.
 The size of the allocated block depends on the data type.
 Since a pointer is a variable, its value is also stored in the memory in another location.
Suppose, we assign the address of quantity to a variable p.
 The link between the variables p and quantity can be visualized as shown in Fig. The
address of p is 5048.

Fig : Pointer Variable

Finding the size of various data types

int main()

printf("\n size of integer is %d bytes”,sizeof(int));

printf("\n size of floating point number is %d bytes”,sizeof(float));

printf("\n size of double is %d bytes”,sizeof(double));

printf("\n size of character is %d byte”,sizeof(char));

return 0;

Output

size of integer is 2 bytes

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size of floating point number is 4 bytes

size of double is 8 bytes

size of character is 1 byte

Pointers are used frequently in C, as they offer a number of benefits (advantages) to the
programmers.
They include (Advantages of pointers):
 Pointers are used to pass information back and forth between functions.
 Pointers enable the programmers to return multiple data items from a function via
function arguments.
 Pointers provide an alternate way to access the individual elements of an array.
 Pointers are used to pass arrays and strings as function arguments.
 Pointers are used to create complex data structures, such as trees, linked lists, linked
stacks, linked queues, and graphs.
 Pointers are used for the dynamic memory allocation of a variable.
Disadvantages of pointers
 If the pointers are not initialized properly, it causes segmentation fault.
 It is difficult to understand and debug
 It leads to memory leakage, if the pointers are not freed after usage in a dynamic memory
management.
2.3 DECLARING POINTER VARIABLES

 The general syntax of declaring pointer variables can be given as below.

data_type *ptr_name;
 Here, data_type is the data type of the value that the pointer will point to.
 For example,
int *pnum;
char *pch;
float *pfnum;
 In each of the above statements, a pointer variable is declared to point to a variable of the
specified data type.

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 The declarations cause the compiler to allocate memory locations for the pointer
variables p.
 Since the memory locations have not been assigned any values, these locations may
contain some unknown values in them and therefore they point to unknown locations as
shown:
int *p ;
P ? ?
Contains garbage Points to unknown location
Initialization Of Pointer Variables
The process of assigning the address of a variable to a pointer variable is known as initialization.
Once a pointer variable has been declared we can use the assignment operator to initialize the
variable.
Example:
int x=10;
int *ptr;
ptr =&x;
We can also combine the initialization with the declaration. That is,
int *ptr = &x;
is allowed. The only requirement here is that the variable x must be declared before the
initialization takes place.
 In the above statement, ptr is the name of the pointer variable.
 The * informs the compiler that ptr is a pointer variable and the int specifies that it will
store the address of an integer variable.
 An integer pointer variable, therefore, ‘points to’ an integer variable.
 In the last statement, ptr is assigned the address of x.
 The & operator retrieves the lvalue (address) of x, and copies that to the contents of the
pointer ptr.
 Now, since x is an integer variable, it will be allocated 2 bytes.
 Assuming that the compiler assigns it memory locations 1003 and 1004, the address of x
(written as &x) is equal to 1003, that is the starting address of x in the memory.

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 When we write, ptr = &x, then ptr = 1003.

 We can ‘dereference’ a pointer, i.e., we can refer to the value of the variable to which it
points by using the unary * operator as in *ptr.
 That is, *ptr = 10, since 10 is the value of x.
 Look at the following code which shows the use of a pointer variable:
#include
int main()
{
int num, *ptr;
ptr = #
printf("\n Enter the number : ");
scanf("%d", &num);
printf("\n The number that was entered is : %d", *ptr);
printf("\n The address of number that was entered is : %d", ptr);
return 0;
}
Output
Enter the number : 10
The number that was entered is : 10
The address of number that was entered is : 6487572
What will be the value of *(&num)?
It is equivalent to simply writing num.
We could also define a pointer variable with an initial value of NULL or 0 (zero). That is, the
following statements are valid.
int *p = NULL;
int *p = 0;

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POINTER FLEXIBILITY Pointers are flexible.

 We can make the same pointer to point to different data variables in different Statements.
Example;
int x, y, z, *p;
p = &x;
…
p = &y;
…
p = &z;
x y z

p
 We can also use different pointers to point to the same data variable. Example;
int x;
int *pl = &x;
int *p2 = &x;
int *p3 =&x;

p1 p2 p3

With the exception of NULL and 0, no other constant value can be assigned to a pointer variable.
For example, the following is wrong:
int *p = 5360; / *absolute address */

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Differences between normal variable and a pointer variable

Normal variable Pointer variable
Stores values Stores address
Not dereferenced to print the value through Dereferenced with the help of * the indirection
variable operator to print the value(content) through
pointer
Dereferenced with the help of & the address of Not dereferenced to print the address through
operator to print the address through variable pointer
Program to add 2 numbers using pointers
void main()
{
int a,b,c,*p,*q;
printf(“enter 2 numbers”);
scanf(“%d%d”,&a,&b);
p=&a;
q=&b;
c=*p + *q;
printf(“sum=%d”,c);
}
2.4 TYPES OF POINTERS
Null Pointers
 A pointer variable is a pointer to a variable of some data type.
 However, in some cases, we may prefer to have a null pointer which is a special pointer
value and does not point to any value.
 This means that a null pointer does not point to any valid memory address.
 To declare a null pointer, we may use the predefined constant NULL
 We can write int *ptr = NULL;
 We can always check whether a given pointer variable stores the address of some
variable or contains NULL by writing,
if (ptr == NULL)
{

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Statement block;
}
 We may also initialize a pointer as a null pointer by using the constant 0
int *ptr;
ptr = 0; This is a valid statement in C
Generic Pointers
 A generic pointer is a pointer variable that has void as its data type.
 The void pointer, or the generic pointer, is a special type of pointer that can point to
variables of any data type.
 It is declared like a normal pointer variable but using the void keyword as the pointer’s
data type.
 For example, void *ptr;
 In C, since we cannot have a variable of type void, the void pointer will therefore not
point to any data and, thus, cannot be dereferenced.
 We need to cast a void pointer to another kind of pointer before using it.
 Generic pointers are often used when you want a pointer to point to data of different
types at different times.
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
int x=10;
char ch = ‘A’;
void *gp;
gp = &x;
printf("\n Generic pointer points to the integer value = %d", *(int*)gp);
gp = &ch;
printf("\n Generic pointer now points to the character= %c", *(char*)gp);
return 0;
}
Output
Generic pointer points to the integer value = 10

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Generic pointer now points to the character = A

Double Pointers (Chain of Pointers or Pointers to Pointers)
Double pointers is used to make a pointer to point to another pointer, thus creating a chain of
pointers.
void main()
{
int a=10;
int *p1,**p2;
p1=&a;
p2=&p1;
printf(“%d”,**p2);
}
Output
10
Here p2 contains address of p1. This is also known as multiple indirections.
int **p2; tells the compiler that p2 is a pointer to a pointer of int type.
2.5 POINTER EXPRESSIONS AND POINTER ARITHMETIC
POINTER EXPRESSIONS
Consider p1 and p2 are pointer variables:
1. Like any other variable, content at pointer can be used in expression.
y=*p1 * *p2
2. Pointers can be compared: p1==p2, p1>p2 is valid
3. p1/p2, p1*p2, p1+p2 is illegal
4. p2-p1 is legal; if p1 and p2 are character pointers to same array. Then p2-p1 gives the
number of number of elements between p1 and p2.
5. We can add or subtract integers; p1+5, p1-2
6. p1++, p1-- is legal.
7.
POINTER ARITHMETIC (ADDRESS ARITHMETIC) POINTERS INCREMENT AND
SCALE FACTOR

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Let us consider starting address as 8000. Then the operation p++ is done to point to next
subsequent element:
1. int
p++ (i.e) p=p+1 address is 8002.
2. char
p++ (i.e) p=p+1 address is 8001.
3. float
p++ (i.e) p=p+1 address is 8004.
4. double
p++ (i.e) p=p+1 address is 8008.
Let us consider starting address as 8008. Then the operation p-- is done to point to previous
element:
1. int
p-- (i.e) p=p-1 address is 8006.
2. char
p-- (i.e) p=p-1 address is 8007.
3. float
p-- (i.e) p=p-1 address is 8004.
4. double
p-- (i.e) p=p-1 address is 8000.
Let us consider starting address as 8000. Then the operation p+5 is done to point to the fifth
element from that element (i.e) element at index 5:
1. int
p=p+5 (i.e) p=p+5 (starting address+index*sizeof(int))=8000+5*2
address is 8010.
2. char
p=p+5 (i.e) p=p+5 (starting address+index*sizeof(char))=8000+5*1
address is 8005.
3. float
p=p+5 (i.e) p=p+5 (starting address+index*sizeof(float))=8000+5*4
address is 8020.

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4. double
p=p+5 (i.e) p=p+5 (starting address+index*sizeof(double))=8000+5*8
address is 8040.
Let us consider starting address as 8040. Then the operation p-5 is done to point to the five
elements before that element:
1. int
p=p-5 (i.e) p=p-5 (starting address-index*sizeof(int))=8040-5*2
address is 8030.
2. char
p=p-5 (i.e) p=p-5 (starting address-index*sizeof(char))=8040-5*1
address is 8035.
3. float
p=p-5 (i.e) p=p-5 (starting address-index*sizeof(float))=8040-5*4
address is 8020.
4. double
p=p-5 (i.e) p=p-5 (starting address-index*sizeof(double))=8040-5*8
address is 8000.
When we increment a pointer, its value is increased by the length of the data type that its points.
This length is called scale factor.
 Scale factor for int in a 16-bit machine is 2 bytes (i.e) the size of the datatype.
 Scale factor for char in a 16-bit machine is 1 byte (i.e) the size of the datatype.
 Scale factor for float in a 16-bit machine is 4 bytes (i.e) the size of the datatype.
 Scale factor for double in a 16-bit machine is 8 bytes (i.e) the size of the datatype.
2.6 POINTERS AND ARRAYS
int a[5]={10,20,30,40,50};
Suppose the base address is 8000, each integer requires two bytes.
Here a refers to starting address. Also, &a[0] refers to the starting address.
Initialization
int a[5];
int *p;
p=a;

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(or)
int a[5];
int *p;
p=&a[0];
Now, we can access the next element in the array by using p++.
p=&a[0] 8000
p+1=&a[1] 8002
p+2=&a[2] 8004
p+3=&a[3] 8006
p+4=&a[0] 8008
Program
void main()
{
int a[10],n,I,*p;
printf(“enter n”);
scanf(“%d”,&n);
printf(“enter elements”);
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
scanf(“%d”,&a[i]);
p=a;
printf(“elements are”);
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
printf(“%d\t”,*(p+i));
}
OUTPUT
enter n 5
enter elements 1 2 3 4 5
elements are 1 2 3 4 5
2.7 PASSING ARGUMENTS TO FUNCTION USING POINTERS
 When an array is passed to a function as an argument, only the address of the first
element of the array is passed. It works like call by reference.

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 Similarly, we can pass the address of a normal variable as an argument to function- It

works like functions that return multiple values
In above both cases the parameters receiving the address should be pointers- so it works like
call by reference. So changes in the formal parameters will affect the actual parameters.
 The function parameters are declared as pointers or arrays.
 Dereferenced pointers are used in function body
 When the function is called, the addresses are passed as actual arguments.
Example : To swap two numbers
void swap(int *p,int *q);
void main()
{
int a,b;
printf(“enter two numbers”);
scanf(“%d%d”,&a,&b);
printf(“before swapping”);
printf(“a=%d,b=%d”,a,b);
swap(&a,&b);
printf(“after swapping”);
printf(“a=%d,b=%d”,a,b);
}
void swap(int *p,int *q)
{
int t;
t=*p;
*p=*q;
*q=t;
}
Output:
enter two numbers 5 4
before swapping
a=5,b=4

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after swapping
a=4,b=5
program (bubble sort)

#include<stdio.h>
void bubblesort(int a[20],int n);
void main()
{
intn,a[20],i,j, temp;
printf("enter the number of elements n");
scanf("%d",&n);
printf("enter the array elements");
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
scanf("%d",&a[i]);
}
bubblesort(a,n)
printf("\n the sorted elements are\n");
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
printf ("%d\t",a[i]);
}
}
void bubblesort(int a[20],int n)
{
int i,j;
for(i=0;i<n-1;i++)
{
for(j=0;j<n-1-i;j++)
{
if(a[j]>a[j+1])
{

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temp=a[j];
a[j]=a[j+1];
a[j+1]=temp;
}

}
}

Output
enter the number of elements n5
enter the array elements 50 20 40 10 30
the sorted elements are
10 20 30 40 50
2.8 Troubles with Pointers (Drawbacks of Pointers)
In most of the cases, compiler may not detect the error and produce unexpected results, when we
use pointers. The output does not give us a clue regarding where we went wrong.
Debugging is difficult.
Some possible errors

 Assigning values to uninitialized pointers

int m=10,*p;
*p=m;
 Assigning a value to a pointer
int m=10,*p;
p=m;
 Not dereferencing to print the value
int m=10,*p;
p=&m;
printf(“%d”,p);
 Assigning the address of uninitialized variable
int m,*p;
p=&m;

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 Comparing pointers that point to different objects

char name1[20],name2[20];
char *p1=name1;
char *p2=name2;
if(p1>p2)

Lab Program 11
Develop a program using pointers to compute the sum, mean and standard deviation of all
elements stored in an array of N real numbers.
Algorithm
Step 1: [Initialize]
Start
Step 2:[Read the no of elements and array elements]
Read n
Read a[]
Step 3: [Set starting address of array to a pointer variable]
ptr=a
Step 4:[Iterate using a for loop to find sum using pointers]
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
sum=sum+*ptr
ptr++
end for
Step 5:[Calculate mean]
mean=sum/n
Step 6: [Set starting address of array to a pointer variable]
ptr=a
Step 7:[Iterate using a for loop to find sumstd using pointers]
for(i=0;i<n;i++
sumstd=sumstd+pow((*ptr-mean),2)
ptr++
end for
Step 8:[Calculate standard deviation]
std=sqrt(sumstd/n)
Step 9:[Display the result]
Print sum,mean,std
Step 10:[Finished]
Stop
Flow Chart

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Program
#include<stdio.h>
#include<math.h>
int main()
{
float a[10],*ptr,mean,std,sum=0,sumstd=0;
int n,i;
printf(“\n Enter the number of elements”);
scanf(“%d”,&n);
printf(‘\n Enter the array elements”);
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
scanf(“%f”,&a[i]);
}
ptr=a;
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
sum=sum+*ptr;
ptr++;
}
mean=sum/n;
ptr=a;
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
sumstd=sumstd+pow((*ptr-mean),2);
ptr++;
}
std=sqrt(sumstd/n);
printf(“Sum=%f\n”,sum);
printf(“Mean=%f\n”,mean);
printf(“Standard Deviation=%f\n”,std);

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return 0;
}
Test cases

Test No Input Parameters Expected Output Obtained Output

1 Enter the number of elements 5 Sum= 28 Sum= 28
Enter the array elements 1 5 9 6 7 Mean= 5.6 Mean= 5.6
Standard Deviation= Standard Deviation=
2.09 2.09
2 Enter the number of elements 4 Sum= 10.68 Sum= 10.68
Enter the array elements 2.3 1.1 4.5 Mean= 2.67 Mean= 2.67
2.78 Standard Deviation= Standard Deviation=
0.863 0.863

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