Thread: Indirection

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Posts
    70

    Indirection

    Code:
    #include <iostream>
    using namespace std;
    void changevalue(int *value);
    main()
    {
    	int value[10];
    	changevalue(value);
    	for(int x=0; x<10; x++)
    	{
    		cout<<value[x]<<endl;//why does this line work...
    	}
    	return 0;
    }
    void changevalue(int *value)
    {
    	for(int x=0; x<10; x++)
    	{
    		value[x]=x+1;
    	}
    }
    i commented a line...why does that work, when this also works..
    Code:
    #include <iostream>
    using namespace std;
    void changevalue(int *value);
    main()
    {
    	int value[10];
    	changevalue(value);
    	for(int x=0; x<10; x++)
    	{
    		cout<<*value;//why the need for indirection?
    	}
    	return 0;
    }
    void changevalue(int *value)
    {
    	for(int x=0; x<10; x++)
    	{
    		value[x]=x+1;
    	}
    }
    why do i need indirection for value (*value) but when i call it as an element from the array, there is no need for the indirection. as in, why does this not work, but the second portion of code does.
    Code:
    #include <iostream>
    using namespace std;
    void changevalue(int *value);
    main()
    {
    	int value[10];
    	changevalue(value);
    	for(int x=0; x<10; x++)
    	{
    		cout<<*value[x]<<endl;//error
    	}
    	return 0;
    }
    void changevalue(int *value)
    {
    	for(int x=0; x<10; x++)
    	{
    		value[x]=x+1;
    	}
    }
    Thanks.

  2. #2
    Hardware Engineer
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Posts
    1,398
    value[x] is a variable. (An integer).
    value is a pointer to value[0]. (An address).

    This makes dealing with string arrays easier, because you often can pass the pointer to a string (or any array) to a function.

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