POINTERS IN C

VARIABLE
A variable is a named memory location. Variables provide direct access to its memory location. A variable has a name, an address, a type,and a value: "the name identifies the variable to the programmer "the address specifies where in main memory the variable is located

WHAT IS A VARIABLE?
"the type specifies how to interpret the data stored in main memory and how long the variable is "the value is the actual data stored in the variable after if has been interpreted according to a given type

POINTER VARIABLE
A

pointer is a variable that contains the memory location of another variable. Syntax: type * variable name You start by specifying the type of data stored in the location identified by the pointer. The asterisk tells the compiler that you are creating a pointer variable. Finally you give the name of the variable.

DECLARING A POINTER VARIABLE

To declare ptr as an integer pointer:

int *ptr;

To declare ptr as a character pointer:

char *ptr;

ADDRESS OPERATOR:
Once we declare a pointer variable we must point it to something we can do this by assigning to the pointer the address of the variable you want to point as in the following example: ptr=# This places the address where num is stores into the variable ptr. If num is stored in memory 21260 address then the variable ptr has the value 21260.

ADDRESS AND POINTERS

Memory can be conceptualized as a linear set of data locations. Variables reference the contents of a locations Pointers have a value of the address of a given location

ADDR1 ADDR2 ADDR3 ADDR4 ADDR5 ADDR6 * * * ADDR11

Contents1

Contents11

* *
ADDR16
Lect 14 P. 7

Contents16

POINTER VARIABLE
Assume ptr is a pointer variable and x is an integer variable x 10

ptr &x Now ptr can access the value of x.

x = 10 ptr = &x

HOW!!!! Write: *variable . printf(%d\n, *ptr); Can you tell me why we put %d???? For example:

VARIABLES, ADDRESSES AND POINTERS

main()

{ int a = 5; int b = 6; int* c; // c points to a c = &a; }

Memory Value a (1001) b (1003) c (1005)

5 6 1001

include< stdio.h > { int num, *intptr; float x, *floptr; char ch, *cptr; num=123; x=12.34; ch=a; intptr=&num; cptr=&ch; floptr=&x; printf(Num %d stored at address %u\n,*intptr,intptr); printf(Value %f stored at address %u\n,*floptr,floptr); printf(Character %c stored at address %u\n,*cptr,cptr); }

RUN THIS CODE

int main() { int x; int *ptr; x = 10; ptr = &x; *ptr = *ptr + 1; printf(x = %d\n, x); }

MANIPULATING POINTER VARIABLE

Once

a variable is declared, we can get its address by preceding its name with the unary & operator, as in &k. We can "dereference" a pointer, i.e. refer to the value of that which it points to, by using the unary '*' operator as in *ptr

REFERENCE
Reference & Retrieve the memory address of a variable int a = 6; int* c = &a; // &a is the memory location of variable a

DEREFERENCE
Dereference

* Accessing the variable (content) the pointer points to (Indirection) int a = 6; int* c = &a; *c = 7; /* Changes content of variable a by using its address stored in pointer c */ equivalent to a = 7;

CONSTANT POINTERS
A constant pointer, ptr, is a pointer that is initialized with an address, and cannot point to anything else. We can use ptr to change the contents of value

Example int value = 22; int * const ptr = &value;

CIS 15 Pointer Arithmetic

16

CONSTANT POINTER
Constant pointer means the pointer is constant. Constant pointer is NOT pointer to constant. For eg: int * const ptr2 indicates that ptr2 is a pointer which is constant. This means that ptr2 cannot be made to point to another integer. However the integer pointed by ptr2 can be changed.

//const pointer void main() { int i = 100,k; int* const pi = &i; *pi = 200; pi=&k; //won't compile }

CONSTANT POINTERS
int value = 22; int value4 = 99; int * const ptr = &value; printf(value:%d \t ,value); value=99; printf(value:%d \t ,value); ptr = &value4; printf(value4:%d \t ,value4);

CIS 15 Pointer Arithmetic

19

POINTER ARITHMETIC
Valid operations on pointers include: - the sum of a pointer and an integer - the difference of a pointer and an integer - pointer comparison
-the

difference of two pointers. in pointers

-Increment/decrement -

assignment operator used in pointers

EXAMPLE
void main() { int a=25,b=78,sum; int *x,*y; x=&a; y=&b; sum= *x + *y; printf(Sum is : %d,sum); }

*p = 1; *(p + 1) = 2; *(p + 2) = 3;

ASSIGNMENT IN POINTERS

Pointer variables can be "assigned":

int *p1, *p2; p2 = p1;

Assigns one pointer to another "Make p2 point to where p1 points"

Do not confuse with:

*p1 = *p2;

Assigns "value pointed to" by p1, to "value pointed to" by p2

DIAGRAMMATIC REPRESENTATION

COMPARISON IN POINTERS
Two

pointers of the same type, p and q, may be compared as long as both of them point to objects within a single memory block Pointers may be compared using the <, >, <=, >=, == , != When you are comparing two pointers, you are comparing the values of those pointers rather than the contents of memory locations pointed to by these pointers

You can perform a limited number of arithmetic operations on pointers. These operations are: Increment and decrement Addition and subtraction Comparison Assignment The increment (++) operator increases the value of a pointer by the size of the data object the pointer refers to. For example, if the pointer refers to the second element in an array, the ++ makes the pointer refer to the third element in the array. The decrement (--) operator decreases the value of a pointer by the size of the data object the pointer refers to. For example, if the pointer refers to the second element in an array, the -- makes the pointer refer to the first element in the array.

You can add an integer to a pointer but you cannot add a pointer to a pointer. If the pointer p points to the first element in an array, the following expression causes the pointer to point to the third element in the same array: p = p + 2; If you have two pointers that point to the same array, you can subtract one pointer from the other. This operation yields the number of elements in the array that separate the two addresses that the pointers refer to. You can compare two pointers with the following operators: ==, !=, <, >, <=, and >=. Pointer comparisons are defined only when the pointers point to elements of the same array. Pointer comparisons using the == and != operators can be performed even when the pointers point to elements of different arrays. You can assign to a pointer the address of a data object, the value of another compatible pointer or the NULL pointer.

 Operations on pointer POINTER ARITHMETIC variables:

Operation
++, -+, - (pointer and int) +=,-= (pointer and int) - (pointer from pointer)

Example
int vals[]={4,7,11}; int *valptr = vals; valptr++; // points at 7 valptr--; // now points at 4 cout << *(valptr + 2); // 11 valptr = vals; // points at 4 valptr += 2; // points at 11 cout << valptrval; // difference //(number of ints) between valptr // and val
28

CIS 15 Pointer Arithmetic

GENERIC POINTERS
When a variable is declared as being a pointer to type void it is known as a generic pointer. Since you cannot have a variable of type void, the pointer will not point to any data and therefore cannot be dereferenced. It is still a pointer though, to use it you just have to typecast it to another kind of pointer first. Hence the term Generic pointer.

This is very useful when you want a pointer to point to data of different types at different times.
Syntax:
void * variable name;
Print value stored in variable *(data_type*)name of variable;

void main() { int i; char c; void *the_data; i = 6; c = 'a'; the_data = &i; printf("the_data points to the integer value %d\n", *(int*) the_data); the_data = &c; printf("the_data now points to the character %c\n", *(char*) the_data); return ; }

NULL POINTER
NULL value can be assigned to any pointer, no matter what its type. void *p = NULL; int i = 2; int *ip = &i; p = ip; printf("%d", *p); printf("%d", *((int*)p ) );