pointer ?

I'm a beginner trying to get the concept of pointers
Why won't this compile?
[code]
#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h> /* for getch() */
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int x;
int *pointer; // Declares pointer
cout<<"enter a # for x ";
cin>>x; //Reads in x
cin=*pointer; //Declares a pointer to x
pointer=&x; //Read it, "pointer equals the address of x"
cout<<*pointer; //Note the use of the * to output the actual number stored in x
getch();
return 0;
}
[code/]

gets an error at cin = *pointer;
saying that pointer is undeclared........??

Thanks for any input........

You dont need the

Code:

---

cin = *pointer;

---

part.

By the way the '/' goes before the 'code' like this [ / code] (with no spaces of course).

Thanks Marcos!!
Ugh! saw that my code tags didn't work when I saw the post..:mad:

Ok I got ya...
int *pointer // declares the pointer
cin >>x // reads in the variable
pointer = &x // assigns the pointer to the address of x

That's clearer now.....
cin = *pointer was also confusing me due to cin == what type???
How would it know how much memory to reserve...int, char, etc.

Would it be a fair statement to say that when working with pointers the type must be defined ??
Thanks Teeyester

Not sure what you were doing with cin=*pointer...If you are trying to get the user to input a value for *pointer you could use cin>>*pointer:

Code:

---

...
pointer=&x;
cin>>*pointer; //pretty much the same as cin>>x

---

Quote:

---

Would it be a fair statement to say that when working with pointers the type must be defined ??

---

Not sure what you mean by that either...but I think you can use void pointers if you aren't sure what type the pointer will be pointing to :rolleyes:

JaWIB
Heh ! I'm not too sure either....I'm trying to get a grip on pointers & the code above wouldn't compile....the cin = * pointer didn't seem to fit the format for pointers in the books and Marcos was right ...it compiled fine removing that part.....I just got caught up looking at how the type of variable affects what you point at.........ie: is it 1 byte for a char, 2 bytes for an int, etc. and in the code above x is defined as an int, but I was getting an error on cin = *pointer........as undeclared........maybe it does == x, since cin >> x........but it's still a bad statement since cin by itself == what type??..........anyway .....onward!! thanks for your input
Teeyester

Quote:

---

Ugh! saw that my code tags didn't work when I saw the post..

---

Hey teeyester,
FYI - You could go back and fix your code tags by clicking the EDIT tab. I'm NOT suggesting that you should at this point... just letting you know that you can edit. It seems like I'm always going back and fixin' somethin'. :)

DougDbug
Thanks for the headsup................:)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by teeyester
int *pointer // declares the pointer

---

Yes.

Quote:

---

cin >>x // reads in the variable

---

Yes.

Quote:

---

pointer = &x // assigns the pointer to the address of x

---

You have this backwards -- it assigns the address of x to the pointer (the pointer is altered to point at x; x is not changed at all)

Quote:

---

cin = *pointer was also confusing me due to cin == what type???
How would it know how much memory to reserve...int, char, etc.

---

You can't use "cin =" for ANYTHING. "cin = *pointer" would try to assign the value of *pointer to the input stream cin, and how can you assign a number to a stream?

cin is an input stream, to read from the stream you use "cin >>". It's legal to say "cin >> *pointer" *IF* pointer points to memory that is previously allocated.

Cat

Ahhhh!
cin is an input stream, to read from the stream you use "cin >>". It's legal to say "cin >> *pointer" *IF* pointer points to memory that is previously allocated.

Thank you very much!!..........VERY Helpful forum
THANKS all................Teeyester............:D