I thought pointers were pointers...

**laserlight** · 08-15-2007

Does this differ in C++? In C++ are arrays not glorified pointers?

To demonstrate:

I was hoping you would demonstrate the difference yourself using sizeof as was mentioned earlier, but you did not

To demonstrate:

Code:

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    char pointer[] = "keira";
    char* otherPointer = pointer;
    std::cout << sizeof(pointer) << " " << sizeof(otherPointer) << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

On my system, the output is "6 4". Basically, C++ has the same distinction between arrays and pointers as C.

**keira** · 08-15-2007

Alright thank you for your help everyone and sorry I'm so thick headed... This is a concept I thought I had completely locked down after spending many months in assembly and C++.

**brewbuck** · 08-15-2007

Originally Posted by keira

Why is the size of c being read as the size of a 32bit pointer instead of the size of the buffer it points to? What is different about the pointers?

Nothing is different. c is a pointer. Therefore sizeof(c) is the size of the pointer. Why would you expect anything different?

**siavoshkc** · 08-15-2007

I don't understand where you got the idea that I was comparing dynamically allocated memory with local memory...

When you use pointer you usually use dynamically allocated memory. What is the local memory then? You mean arrays?

**keira** · 08-15-2007

Local would be stack memory, dynamic would be heap memory.

The expression: char* string = "keira"; Creates both the pointer string and the consecutive ordering of bytes that translate to "keira" on the stack.

Basically to answer my original question, this was what i was looking for: (taken from http://c-faq.com/aryptr/aryptrequiv.html)

That is, whenever an array appears in an expression, the compiler implicitly generates a pointer to the array's first element, just as if the programmer had written &a[0]. (The exceptions are when the array is the operand of a sizeof or & operator, or is a string literal initializer for a character array. [footnote] See questions 6.23, 6.12, and 1.32, respectively.)

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