Thread: Confusion with pointers!

for example

Code:

int *p' //means an integer pointer
int p = 4*8;//means a integer number

Can you note that I am using the same operator in two completely different scenarios and the operator knows how to perform the job depending upon its position. So how does it do that?

The compiler keeps track of the order or elements in each expression and interprets the * (Asterisk) accordingly. There are fixed rules that ensure there's no ambiguity, even if things can get hard to parse for humans working with the code.

There is also the dereference operator:

Code:

int i = 5 * 7;
int* p = &i;
int j = *p; // dereference p to get i

Maybe if the language was designed nowadays, different characters would be used:

Code:

int i = 5 * 7;
int^ p = @i; // int pointer p = address of i