Thread: pointers to char arrays.

hello, I am trying to understand how pointer works, but there is something I dont get:

insert

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
        int *pointer;
        int number=10;
        pointer=&number;
        printf("\nvalue of number: %d",number);
        printf("\nvalue of what the pointer points to: %d",*pointer);
        printf("\nmemory location of number: %x",&number);
        printf("\nmemory location of pointer: %x",pointer);
}

in this example I assing to pointer the memory location of number (pointer=&number), and everything works.

I was trying to do the same with a string of characters, but it doesnt work as I expected:

insert

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
        char *pointer;
        char string[]="blabla";
        pointer=&string[0];
        printf("\ncontent of string: %s",string);
        printf("\ncontent of what the pointer points to: %s",*pointer);
}

the second program core dumps printing the value of *pointer.

Dont understand why.

I arrived to this example because I was thinking about a way to prevent the use of the malloc system call.

I mean that I can define a string in this way:

char *string=malloc(10 * sizeof(char));

but i thought I could do the same defining a pointer to char, a char array and make the pointer points to the first character of the char array

PS: I have found that a small change in the second program produces the expected behaviour:

insert

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
        char *pointer;
        char string[]="blabla";
        pointer=&string[0];
        printf("\ncontent of string: %s",string);
        printf("\ncontent of what the pointer points to: %s",pointer);
}

I dont understand why this works... I was expecting that *pointer would point to the char array