pointers newbie... -_+

If anyone, please give me an idea what pointers are? The simplest that I could understand... please?

I saw lots of programs that use pointers, and I don't get it why is it so important...

I have posted here in the message board titled: "printing from output..."
..there's a code there I posted which I got somewhere from the internet, and there's this asterisk(*) thing, arrggghhh, I just don't get it... lol,, xD

What's the (*) sign's use and also, what's the (&) sign's use?


btw, here's the code I posted from the aforementioned post:

Code:

---

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>

int main(void)
{
        FILE *testFile;
        int age;
        char name[40];

        system("cls");

        testFile = fopen("c:\\testFile.txt", "w");

        printf("\n\n\tEnter your name here: ");
        gets(name);

        printf("\tEnter your age here: ");
        scanf("%i", &age);


        fprintf(testFile, "The name you have inputed is: %s", name);
        fprintf(testFile, "\nYour age is: %i", age);

        fclose(testFile);

        return 0;
}

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and here's a quoted message:

Quote:

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FILE *testFile declares a pointer to a FILE object. It must be a pointer (unless you REALLY want to get yourself in deep water).

For now, you can ignore the fact that it is a pointer, tho' - because the way you'll use it throughout your life as a programmer is just "an identifier of a file" - the fact that it happens to be a pointer or that it's pointing to a file object is as meaningful as knowing the stoichometric mixture values for fuel and air in an engine when driving a car - pointless.

---

I don't get it what he's trying to say.. I don't want to ignore the fact it's a pointer.. I really want to know what pointers are... So if anyone, please help me understand what pointers are.. thanks in advance... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year... ^.^

We have a tutorial on pointers that could be a starting point to get to know about pointers.

Also, never use gets.
And avoid system like the plague - it is unportable.
And also note that it is also possible to write pointers as T* var instead of T *var like the tutorial only mentions.

Blinky's pointer video might help (link mentioned in this post). For something slightly more serious though, the cprogramming tutorial on pointers & C programming Language on howstuffworks both cover pointers pretty well (& should both cover file I/O too.)