pointer to array as parameter to function

Hi,

I wrote a simple program that counts the letters in the words from a sentence.
The program works, but what i was wondering is :
did i use the correct approach to pass the pointers to the function bereken. Also with a pointer to an array, do you have to de-reference this pointer (in the function bereken) ? I just used the name without de-referencing, this seems to work.

Thanks.

Code:

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#include <iostream.h>
#include <string.h>

void bereken(char *zinp, int *letters);

void main()
{
        char zin[80];
        int letters[10];
        int i;

        //clrscr();
        cout << "Geef een nieuwe regel: ";
        cin.getline(zin,80);

        cout << "lengte zin : " << strlen(zin) << endl;

        // initialiseren van de array

        for(i=0; i<10; i++)
                letters[i]=0;

        bereken(zin, letters);

        for (i=0; i<10; i++)
        {
                cout << "Aantal woorden met " << i+1 << " letters: " << letters[i] << endl;
        }
}

void bereken(char *zinp, int *letters)
{
 int j, letters2;

 letters2=0;
 j=0;
 do
 {
    if ((zinp[j] != ' ') && (zinp[j] != '.'))
      letters2+=1;
        else
        {
          letters[letters2-1]+=1;
          letters2=0;
        }
        j++;
 } while (zinp[j] != '.');

 // laatste waarde ook nog in tabel zetten

 letters[letters2-1]+=1;
}

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>void main()
int main(). Main has never returned void in the history of C++. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong. :)

>did i use the correct approach to pass the pointers to the function bereken
Yes. You could have also used array notation for the function arguments to show that they're arrays:

Code:

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void bereken(char zinp[], int letters[]);

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The effect is the same either way.

>I just used the name without de-referencing, this seems to work.
Ah, but you did dereference your pointers. You just didn't realize it. :) Array subscripting is simply dereferencing a pointer offset, so this:

Code:

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letters[letters2-1]+=1;

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Is just notational convenience and the compiler really sees this:

Code:

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*(letters + (letters2 - 1)) += 1;

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