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Pointers and Arrays

Pointers and arrays in C are closely related. An array name can be used as a pointer to the first element of the array. When an array is passed to a function, the array name decays to a pointer to the first element. To know the size of the array, it must be passed as a separate parameter. Multi-dimensional arrays are stored in row-major order in memory, so the row-major access formula can be used to index into a multi-dimensional array using pointer arithmetic. However, array notation is preferred over pointer arithmetic whenever possible for clarity.

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151 views

Pointers and Arrays

Pointers and arrays in C are closely related. An array name can be used as a pointer to the first element of the array. When an array is passed to a function, the array name decays to a pointer to the first element. To know the size of the array, it must be passed as a separate parameter. Multi-dimensional arrays are stored in row-major order in memory, so the row-major access formula can be used to index into a multi-dimensional array using pointer arithmetic. However, array notation is preferred over pointer arithmetic whenever possible for clarity.

Uploaded by

Bharatiyulam
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Pointers and Arrays Pointers and Arrays

– Recall the pointer syntax:


– char *cptr; char *cptr;
0x80493e0 0x80494dc
• declares a pointer to a char char c = 'a';
• allocates space to store a pointer to a char cptr = &c;
– char c = 'a'; *cptr = 'b';
– cptr = &c; 0x80494dc a’
‘ b’
• cptr gets the value of the address of c
Symbol Table
• the value stored at the memory location referred to by
cptr is the address of the memory location referred cptr 0x80493e0
to by c;
c 0x80494dc
– *cptr = 'b'; - dereference cptr
• the address stored at cptr identifies the memory
location where 'b' will be stored.
1 2

Arrays vs. Pointers Example


• An array name in expression context decays int a[4] = {0, 1, 2, 3};
int *p = a; (*p) == a[0]
into a pointer to the zero’th element. int i = 0;
0

• E.g. for(i = 0; i < 4; i++) { *(p + 1) == a[1] 1


int a[3] = {1, 3, 5}; printf("%d\n", *(p + i));
int *p = a; p = &a[0]; }
*(p + 2) == a[2] 2
p[0] = 10;
printf(“%d %d\n”, a[0], *p); *(p + 3) == a[3] 3

Why does adding 1 to p move it to the next


spot for an int, when an int is 4 bytes?
3 4
Pointer Arithmetic Passing Arrays as Parameters
int main()
• Pointer arithmetic respects the type of the
{
pointer. int i[3] = {10, 9, 8};
• E.g., printf(“sum is %d\n”, sum(i)); /*??*/
int i[2] = {1, 2}; char c[2] = {'a','z'}; }
int *ip; char *cp; int sum( What goes here? ) {
ip = i; cp = c; }
*(ip + 1) += 2; *(cp + 1) = 'b'; • What is being passed to the function is the
(really adds 4 to ip) (really adds 1 to cp) name of the array which decays to a pointer to
the first element – a pointer of type int.

5 6 1

Passing Arrays as Parameters Array Parameters


int sum( int *a ) { int sum(int *a, int size)
int i, s = 0;
for(i = 0; i < ??; i++)
• Also legal is
s += a[i]; /* this is legal */ int sum(int a[], int size)
} • Many advise against using this form.
• How do you know how big the array is? – You really are passing a pointer-to-int not an array.
• Remember that arrays are not objects, so knowing – You still don't know how big the array is.
– Outside of a formal parameter declaration int a[]; is
where the zero’th element of an array is does not
illegal
tell you how big it is.
• int a; and int a[10]; are completely different
• Pass in the size of the array as another parameter. things

7 8
Multi-dimensional arrays Summary
• Remember that memory is a sequence of bytes.
• The name of an array can also be used
row 0 row 1 row 2 as a pointer to the zero’th element of the
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
array.
int a[3][3] = { {0, 1, 2}, • This is useful when passing arrays as
{3, 4, 5}, parameters.
{6, 7, 8}};
• Arrays in C are stored in row-major order • Use array notation rather than pointer
• row-major access formula arithmetic whenever you have an array.
x[i][j] == *(x + i * n + j) But use array
where n is the row size of x notation! 9 10

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