Scribd
Upload
120 views

C Programming Pointers and Arrays

Arrays and pointers in C are closely related but have an important difference - array elements have fixed addresses while pointer variables can point to different addresses. An example prints the addresses of elements in an array c, showing they are sequentially allocated with a difference of 1 byte. The document also explains: - The name of an array represents the address of its first element. &arr[0] is equivalent to arr. - arr[0] is equivalent to *arr as both represent the value at the address arr. - Pointer arithmetic can be used to access array elements - &arr[i] is equivalent to (arr+i) and arr[i] is equivalent to *(arr+i). -

Uploaded by

slspa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
120 views

C Programming Pointers and Arrays

Arrays and pointers in C are closely related but have an important difference - array elements have fixed addresses while pointer variables can point to different addresses. An example prints the addresses of elements in an array c, showing they are sequentially allocated with a difference of 1 byte. The document also explains: - The name of an array represents the address of its first element. &arr[0] is equivalent to arr. - arr[0] is equivalent to *arr as both represent the value at the address arr. - Pointer arithmetic can be used to access array elements - &arr[i] is equivalent to (arr+i) and arr[i] is equivalent to *(arr+i). -

Uploaded by

slspa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

C Programming Pointers and Arrays

Arrays are closely related to pointers in C programming but the important difference between them is that, a
pointer variable can take different addresses as value whereas, in case of array it is fixed. This can be
demonstrated by an example:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
char c[4];
int i;
for(i=0;i<4;++i){
printf("Address of c[%d]=%x\n",i,&c[i]);
}
return 0;
}
Address of c[0]=28ff44
Address of c[1]=28ff45
Address of c[2]=28ff46
Address of c[3]=28ff47

Notice, that there is equal difference (difference of 1 byte) between any two consecutive elements of array.
Note: You may get different address of an array.

Relation between Arrays and Pointers


Consider and array:
int arr[4];

In arrays of C programming, name of the array always points to the first element of an array. Here, address of
first element of an array is &arr[0] . Also, arr represents the address of the pointer where it is pointing.
Hence, &arr[0] is equivalent to arr.
Also, value inside the address &arr[0] and address arr are equal. Value in address &arr[0] is arr[0] and
value in address arr is *arr . Hence, arr[0] is equivalent to *arr .
Similarly,
&a[1] is equivalent to (a+1)

AND, a[1] is equivalent to *(a+1).

&a[2] is equivalent to (a+2)

AND, a[2] is equivalent to *(a+2).

&a[3] is equivalent to (a+1)

AND, a[3] is equivalent to *(a+3).

.
.
&a[i] is equivalent to (a+i)

AND, a[i] is equivalent to *(a+i).

In C, you can declare an array and can use pointer to alter the data of an array.
//Program to find the sum of six numbers with arrays and pointers.
#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
int i,class[6],sum=0;
printf("Enter 6 numbers:\n");
for(i=0;i<6;++i){
scanf("%d",(class+i)); // (class+i) is equivalent to &class[i]
sum += *(class+i); // *(class+i) is equivalent to class[i]
}
printf("Sum=%d",sum);
return 0;
}

Output
Enter 6 numbers:
2
3
4
5
3
4
Sum=21

You might also like