question about pointers without the *

[Bleech]

when I declare a pointer, and refer to it without the *, I think I am using it as a normal variable (since I know pointers hold addresses in memory, and the * operator will retrieve the value at the address stored in the pointer). is this correct? for example:

int i, *p;

i = 1;
p = &i; /* this line, I am assigning the address of i to the variable p, correct? */

what is "p" at the point of the commented line (without the *)? is it simply a variable at this point?

forget about strings being used without their index for a second, I DO understand that this will generate the address of the first element of the string. but just that fact is probably what is leading me to this uncertainty. but also the fact that this code is legal, makes me think my answer to my above question is correct:

char str[80] = "somestr", *p;

p = str; /* the equivalent of using &, the "address of" operator, which is unnecessary since the compiler will automatically substitute str with the address of its first element */

p would be a variable declared as a pointer to char in the above, and str would be a constant address of the first element in the string.

would anyone please just let me know if I have this all correct here?


thank you in advance!

[SKeane]

A pointer is a variable that holds the address of something. If you dereference the pointer (using *) you are dealing with the "thing" it points at, rather than the pointer itself.

[Bleech]

exactly. if you dereference it with *, you end up at the address that it contains (hence the reason why they say do not dereference a pointer that does not contain a valid address, you will be attempting to obtain memory at an undefined location).

I'm so happy now that I think I have finally understood pointers 100%. they are the only thing that I was shaky with in C, and probably the most complex and powerful part of the language (and now that I seem to understand them, they don't seem all that complex). soon I'll be able to move on to C++, but not just yet, I am happy with C for the moment and want to build more experience.

user input is still appreciated however, I shouldn't get too excited, I might still be wrong on some of what I said...

[jafet]

Um -- you could always compile it to see if you got it right, instead of coming all the way here...

int main(void)
{
    char str[] = "Hello, World", *p;
    int i = 12345, *q;
    printf("The address of %s is %x\n", str, str);
    p = str;
    printf("p has been assigned the value %x, it now points to %s\n", p, p);
    q = &i;
    printf("The address of i is %x; it holds the value %d\n", q, *q);
    return 0;
}

[Prelude]

>and probably the most complex and powerful part of the language
Powerful, sure. Complex, not really. Streams are more complicated in concept and in practice than pointers. It's the programmers who don't fully understand the concept of indirection that make pointers complex. In other words, it's all in your head.