*char and char

[subdene]

Two questions really,
What is the difference between declaring *char Name, and char Name, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of using either declaration?
Thanks.

[The Dog]

I suppose you meant :

char* Name and char Name

The one with the asterisk(*), is a pointer to a char, which can hold the address of another char variable.

The one without the asterisk(*), is a normal char variable which can hold characters.

To clarify, both char* and char variables hold data, the difference is that the data for the char* variable, must be the address of a normal char variable.

[subdene]

ok, so do these two declarations have exactly the same affect?

char *FirstName="Dene", char FirstName[]="Dene\0";

[The Dog]

Same effect, but remember that the pointer can also point somewhere else.

Eg.

char*  ptr;
char    Name[]      = "TestName";
char    Surname[] = "TestSurname";

ptr = Name;
cout << ptr;
ptr = Surname;
cout << ptr;

btw you don't need to put the \0 in the initial string declaration.