Pointers in C

Introduction Generations of Computers Classification of Computers Basic Anatomy of a Computer System Memory Management Computer Software Operating System

Algorithm Flowcharts

Programming Language Generations of Programming Languages Introduction to C Structure of C Programming Language Integrated Development Environment First C program, Hello World Executing a C Program Constants in C Variables in C C Storage Classes and Storage Class Specifiers

Introduction Arithmetic operators Relational Operators Logical Operators Assignment Operator Increment and Decrement Operators Conditional Operators Bitwise Operators Precedence and Associativity

Control Instructions in C if Statement in C if-else Statement Nested if-else statement else if ladder Switch Statements in C

Loops Introduction for Loop while loop in C do-while Loop break and continue statements

Array in C One Dimensional array Two Dimensional Array Multidimensional Arrays

Modular Programming Functions

Searching Techniques Linear Search Algorithm Binary-Search-Algorithm

Sorting Introduction Bubble Sort

What is Strings Standard Library String Functions

Structure Introduction Defining a Structure Declaration of Structure Example of Structure Union Introduction Defining a Union Accessing Union Members

Pointers in C Accessing the Address of a variable Pointer Operations

Dynamic Memory Allocation

A pointer is a variable that stores the address of another variable, i.e., direct address of the memory location. Like any variable or constant, you must declare a pointer before using it to store any variable address.

The general form of a pointer variable declaration is −

data-type *pointer-name;

Here, data-type is the pointer's base type; it must be a valid C data type and pointer-name is the name of the pointer variable. The asterisk * that is used to declare a pointer is the same as the asterisk that is used to multiply. The asterisk, on the other hand, is used to indicate a variable as a pointer in this statement. Take a look at a few examples of proper pointer declarations.

int    *iptr;    /* pointer to an integer */

double *dptr;    /* pointer to a double */

float  *fptr;    /* pointer to a float */

char   *chptr     /* pointer to a character */

In a C program, pointers are used to manipulate addresses and access memory. Dereferencing a pointer is the process of getting the data stored at the location where the pointer references in memory. In a similar vein, one might think of a page number in a book's index as a pointer to the relevant page; dereferencing such a pointer is getting the content from the specified page number.

Advantages of Pointers

The following are the advantages of using pointers:

Pointers provide effective memory access.
Run-time memory allocation and deallocation.
It provides a way to return multiple data items from a function using its function arguments
Writing effective programs is advantageous.
It deals specifically with hardware parts.
Additionally, it offers a different method of accessing an array element.
It helps to direct memory access.

Fundamentals of the Computer System

Introduction to Algorithm

Programming Basics

Operators in C

Conditional Branching

Iteration and Loops

Array in C

Functions in C

Searching Algorithms

Sorting Algorithms

Strings

Structures and Union

Pointers in C

File Handling in C

Advanced

Pointers in C

Advantages of Pointers