Getting pointer to work with function

[Vertex34]

Why will this code not work?

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

int newvalue(t);

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int x = 3;
newvalue(&x);
printf("%i\n",x);
system("pause");
}
int newvalue(t)
{
int *t;
*t = 5;
return 0;
}

[itsme86]

int newvalue(t);

int newvalue(t)
{
int *t;
*t = 5;
return 0;
}

Nice try, but no.

Function prototypes and declarations are designed to let the compiler know what the function expects. Look up function prototypes or look through any of the hundreds of examples on this site that create a function to see the correct way of going about it.

[sean]

Because your code does several things that don't make sense. Perhaps you could tell us what you're trying to do and we could show you a better example. You could then look at what's different and see where you went wrong.

Also, use code tags. Place [/code] and [code] and the end and beginning of your code, respectively (I did it in backwards order so that the code tags wouldn't format my explanation of how to use code tags. They make your code a lot easier to read.

[sean]

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int x = 3;
    newvalue(&x);
    printf("%i\n",x);
    system("pause");
}

int newvalue(t)
{
    int *t;
    *t = 5;
    return 0;
}

Pretty cool, eh?

[Vertex34]

ok, what i am trying to do is pass the address of a variable to a function, then change the variable within the fuction by using a pointer to the address of the variabel

[Sebastiani]

see if this makes things clearer:

int sum(int a, int b); // prototype

int sum(int a, int b) { // implementation
 int result = a + b;
 return result;
 }

int main(void) {
 printf("%d\n", sum(512, 512));
 }

int sum(int a, int b, int * result) // prototype

int sum(int a, int b, int * result) { // implementation
 *result = a + b;
 return *result;
 }

int main(void) {
 int result;
 sum(512, 512, &result);
 printf("%d\n", result);
 }

[sand_man]

just a few simple fixes

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

int newvalue(int *);

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
        int x = 3;
        newvalue(&x);
        printf("%i\n",x);
        system("pause");
        return 0;
}

int newvalue(int *t)
{
        *t = 5;
        return 0;
}

[Vertex34]

thanks sand_man, I am trying to learn to apply pointers without using the books examples, i see how I was thinking wrong now.