A Tutorial on Pointers and Arrays in C

Ted Jensen

April 2019

Available in various formats via https://github.com/jflaherty/ptrtut13

Contents
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Acknowledgements: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About the Author: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About the Maintainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Other versions of this document: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
CHAPTER 1: What is a pointer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 2: Pointer types and Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
CHAPTER 3: Pointers and Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
CHAPTER 4: More on Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
CHAPTER 5: Pointers and Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
CHAPTER 6: Some more on Strings, and Arrays of Strings . . . . 29
CHAPTER 7: More on Multi-Dimensional Arrays . . . . . . . . . . 34
CHAPTER 8: Pointers to Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
CHAPTER 9: Pointers and Dynamic Allocation of Memory . . . . 39
CHAPTER 10: Pointers to Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

1
PREFACE
This document is intended to introduce pointers to beginning programmers in
the C programming language. Over several years of reading and contributing
to various conferences on C including those on the FidoNet and UseNet, I
have noted a large number of newcomers to C appear to have a difficult time
in grasping the fundamentals of pointers. I therefore undertook the task of
trying to explain them in plain language with lots of examples.
The first version of this document was placed in the public domain, as is
this one. It was picked up by Bob Stout who included it as a file called
PTR-HELP.TXT in his widely distributed collection of SNIPPETS. Since
that original 1995 release, I have added a significant amount of material and
made some minor corrections in the original work.
In the HTML version 1.1 I made a number of minor changes to the wording as
a result of comments emailed to me from around the world. In version 1.2 I
updated the first two chapters to acknowledge the shift from 16 bit compilers
to 32 bit compilers on PCs.
In version 1.3, there is a Markdown version of the turorial available.

Acknowledgements:
There are so many people who have unknowingly contributed to this work
because of the questions they have posed in the FidoNet C Echo, or the UseNet
Newsgroup comp.lang.c, or several other conferences in other networks, that
it would be impossible to list them all. Special thanks go to Bob Stout who
was kind enough to include the first version of this material in his SNIPPETS
file.

About the Author:

Ted Jensen is a retired Electronics Engineer who worked as a hardware
designer or manager of hardware designers in the field of magnetic recording.
Programming has been a hobby of his off and on since 1968 when he learned
how to keypunch cards for submission to be run on a mainframe. (The
mainframe had 64K of magnetic core memory!).

2
About the Maintainer
Jay Flaherty is a Principal Software Engineer who has worked for various
entities programming in everything from Perl to Python to Java and now is
diving deep into the world of C programming.
Use of this Material:

Other versions of this document:

The original 1.2 version of this document is available at Github Releases

3
INTRODUCTION
If you want to be proficient in the writing of code in the C programming
language, you must have a thorough working knowledge of how to use pointers.
Unfortunately, C pointers appear to represent a stumbling block to newcomers,
particularly those coming from other computer languages such as Fortran,
Pascal or Basic.
To aid those newcomers in the understanding of pointers I have written the
following material. To get the maximum benefit from this material, I feel
it is important that the user be able to run the code in the various listings
contained in the article. I have attempted, therefore, to keep all code ANSI
compliant so that it will work with any ANSI compliant compiler. I have also
tried to carefully block the code within the text. That way, with the help of
an ASCII text editor, you can copy a given block of code to a new file and
compile it on your system. I recommend that readers do this as it will help
in understanding the material.

4
CHAPTER 1: What is a pointer?
One of those things beginners in C find difficult is the concept of pointers.
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide an introduction to pointers and
their use to these beginners.
I have found that often the main reason beginners have a problem with
pointers is that they have a weak or minimal feeling for variables, (as they
are used in C). Thus we start with a discussion of C variables in general.
A variable in a program is something with a name, the value of which can
vary. The way the compiler and linker handles this is that it assigns a specific
block of memory within the computer to hold the value of that variable. The
size of that block depends on the range over which the variable is allowed to
vary. For example, on 32 bit PC’s the size of an integer variable is 4 bytes.
On older 16 bit PCs integers were 2 bytes. In C the size of a variable type
such as an integer need not be the same on all types of machines. Further
more there is more than one type of integer variable in C. We have integers,
long integers and short integers which you can read up on in any basic text
on C. This document assumes the use of a 32 bit system with 4 byte integers.
If you want to know the size of the various types of integers on your system,
running the following code will give you that information.
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
printf("size of a short is %d\n", sizeof(short));

printf("size of a int is %d\n", sizeof(int));

printf("size of a long is %d\n", sizeof(long));

}
When we declare a variable we inform the compiler of two things, the name of
the variable and the type of the variable. For example, we declare a variable
of type integer with the name k by writing:
int k;

5
On seeing the "int" part of this statement the compiler sets aside 4 bytes of
memory (on a PC) to hold the value of the integer. It also sets up a symbol
table. In that table it adds the symbol k and the relative address in memory
where those 4 bytes were set aside.
Thus, later if we write:
k = 2;
we expect that, at run time when this statement is executed, the value 2 will
be placed in that memory location reserved for the storage of the value of k.
In C we refer to a variable such as the integer k as an "object".
In a sense there are two "values" associated with the object k. One is the
value of the integer stored there (2 in the above example) and the other the
"value" of the memory location, i.e., the address of k. Some texts refer to
these two values with the nomenclature rvalue (right value, pronounced "are
value") and lvalue (left value, pronounced "el value") respectively.
In some languages, the lvalue is the value permitted on the left side of the
assignment operator ’=’ (i.e. the address where the result of evaluation of
the right side ends up). The rvalue is that which is on the right side of the
assignment statement, the 2 above. Rvalues cannot be used on the left side
of the assignment statement. Thus: 2 = k; is illegal.
Actually, the above definition of "lvalue" is somewhat modified for C. According
to K&R II (page 197): [1]
"An object is a named region of storage; an lvalue is an expression
referring to an object."
However, at this point, the definition originally cited above is sufficient. As
we become more familiar with pointers we will go into more detail on this.
Okay, now consider:
int j, k;

k = 2;
j = 7; <-- line 1
k = j; <-- line 2
In the above, the compiler interprets the j in line 1 as the address of the

6
variable j (its lvalue) and creates code to copy the value 7 to that address.
In line 2, however, the j is interpreted as its rvalue (since it is on the right
hand side of the assignment operator ’=’). That is, here the j refers to the
value stored at the memory location set aside for j, in this case 7. So, the 7
is copied to the address designated by the lvalue of k.
In all of these examples, we are using 4 byte integers so all copying of rvalues
from one storage location to the other is done by copying 4 bytes. Had we
been using two byte integers, we would be copying 2 bytes.
Now, let’s say that we have a reason for wanting a variable designed to hold
an lvalue (an address). The size required to hold such a value depends on
the system. On older desk top computers with 64K of memory total, the
address of any point in memory can be contained in 2 bytes. Computers
with more memory would require more bytes to hold an address. The actual
size required is not too important so long as we have a way of informing the
compiler that what we want to store is an address.
Such a variable is called a pointer variable (for reasons which hopefully
will become clearer a little later). In C when we define a pointer variable we
do so by preceding its name with an asterisk. In C we also give our pointer a
type which, in this case, refers to the type of data stored at the address we
will be storing in our pointer. For example, consider the variable declaration:
int *ptr;
ptr is the name of our variable (just as k was the name of our integer variable).
The ’*’ informs the compiler that we want a pointer variable, i.e. to set aside
however many bytes is required to store an address in memory. The int says
that we intend to use our pointer variable to store the address of an integer.
Such a pointer is said to "point to" an integer. However, note that when we
wrote int k; we did not give k a value. If this definition is made outside of
any function ANSI compliant compilers will initialize it to zero. Similarly,
ptr has no value, that is we haven’t stored an address in it in the above
declaration. In this case, again if the declaration is outside of any function,
it is initialized to a value guaranteed in such a way that it is guaranteed to
not point to any C object or function. A pointer initialized in this manner is
called a "null" pointer.
The actual bit pattern used for a null pointer may or may not evaluate to
zero since it depends on the specific system on which the code is developed.

7
To make the source code compatible between various compilers on various
systems, a macro is used to represent a null pointer. That macro goes under
the name NULL. Thus, setting the value of a pointer using the NULL macro,
as with an assignment statement such as ptr = NULL, guarantees that the
pointer has become a null pointer. Similarly, just as one can test for an
integer value of zero, as in if(k == 0), we can test for a null pointer using if
(ptr == NULL).
But, back to using our new variable ptr. Suppose now that we want to store
in ptr the address of our integer variable k. To do this we use the unary &
operator and write:
ptr = &k;
What the & operator does is retrieve the lvalue (address) of k, even though
k is on the right hand side of the assignment operator ’=’, and copies that to
the contents of our pointer ptr. Now, ptr is said to "point to" k. Bear with
us now, there is only one more operator we need to discuss.
The "dereferencing operator" is the asterisk and it is used as follows:
*ptr = 7;
will copy 7 to the address pointed to by ptr. Thus if ptr "points to" (contains
the address of) k, the above statement will set the value of k to 7. That is,
when we use the ’*’ this way we are referring to the value of that which ptr is
pointing to, not the value of the pointer itself.
Similarly, we could write:
printf("%d\n",*ptr);
to print to the screen the integer value stored at the address pointed to by
ptr;.
One way to see how all this stuff fits together would be to run the following
program and then review the code and the output carefully.
———– Program 1.1 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>

int j, k;
int *ptr;

8
int main(void)
{
j = 1;
k = 2;
ptr = &k;
printf("\n");
printf("j has the size %lu, value %d, and is stored at %p\n", sizeof(j), j, (v
printf("k has the size %lu, value %d, and is stored at %p\n", sizeof(k), k, (v
printf("ptr has the size %lu, value %p, and is stored at %p\n", sizeof(ptr), (
printf("The value of the integer pointed to by ptr is %d\n", *ptr);

return 0;
}
——— end program 1.1 ———————————–
Note: We have yet to discuss those aspects of C which require the use of the
(void *) expression used here. For now, include it in your test code. We’ll
explain the reason behind this expression later.
————————————————————-
To review:
• A variable is declared by giving it a type and a name (e.g. int k;)
• A pointer variable is declared by giving it a type and a name (e.g. int
*ptr) where the asterisk tells the compiler that the variable named
ptr is a pointer variable and the type tells the compiler what type the
pointer is to point to (integer in this case).
• Once a variable is declared, we can get its address by preceding its name
with the unary & operator, as in &k.
• We can "dereference" a pointer, i.e. refer to the value of that which it
points to, by using the unary ’*’ operator as in *ptr.
• An "lvalue" of a variable is the value of its address, i.e. where it is
stored in memory. The "rvalue" of a variable is the value stored in that
variable (at that address).
References for Chapter 1:
1. "The C Programming Language" 2nd Edition

9
B. Kernighan and D. Ritchie
Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-110362-8

10
CHAPTER 2: Pointer types and Arrays
Okay, let’s move on. Let us consider why we need to identify the type of
variable that a pointer points to, as in:
int *ptr;
One reason for doing this is so that later, once ptr "points to" something, if
we write:
*ptr = 2;
the compiler will know how many bytes to copy into that memory location
pointed to by ptr. If ptr was declared as pointing to an integer, 4 bytes
would be copied. Similarly for floats and doubles the appropriate number
will be copied. But, defining the type that the pointer points to permits a
number of other interesting ways a compiler can interpret code. For example,
consider a block in memory consisting if ten integers in a row. That is, 40
bytes of memory are set aside to hold 10 integers.
Now, let’s say we point our integer pointer ptr at the first of these integers.
Furthermore lets say that integer is located at memory location 100 (decimal).
What happens when we write:
ptr + 1;
Because the compiler "knows" this is a pointer (i.e. its value is an address)
and that it points to an integer (its current address, 100, is the address of
an integer), it adds 4 to ptr instead of 1, so the pointer "points to" the
next integer, at memory location 104. Similarly, were the ptr declared as a
pointer to a short, it would add 2 to it instead of 1. The same goes for other
data types such as floats, doubles, or even user defined data types such as
structures. This is obviously not the same kind of "addition" that we normally
think of. In C it is referred to as addition using "pointer arithmetic", a term
which we will come back to later.
Similarly, since ++ptr and ptr++ are both equivalent to ptr + 1 (though
the point in the program when ptr is incremented may be different), in-
crementing a pointer using the unary ++ operator, either pre- or post-,
increments the address it stores by the amount sizeof(type) where "type" is
the type of the object pointed to. (i.e. 4 for an integer).

11
Since a block of 10 integers located contiguously in memory is, by definition,
an array of integers, this brings up an interesting relationship between arrays
and pointers.
Consider the following:
int my_array[] = {1,23,17,4,-5,100};
Here we have an array containing 6 integers. We refer to each of these integers
by means of a subscript to my_array, i.e. using my_array[0] through
my_array[5]. But, we could alternatively access them via a pointer as
follows:
int *ptr;
ptr = &my_array[0]; /* point our pointer at the first
integer in our array */
And then we could print out our array either using the array notation or by
dereferencing our pointer. The following code illustrates this:
———– Program 2.1 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>

int my_array[] = {1,23,17,4,-5,100};

int *ptr;

int main(void)
{
int i;
ptr = &my_array[0]; /* point our pointer to the first
element of the array */
printf("\n\n");
for (i = 0; i < 6; i++)
{
printf("my_array[%d] = %3d\t",i,my_array[i]); /*<-- A */
printf("ptr + %d = %3d\n",i, *(ptr + i)); /*<-- B */
}
return 0;
}
——— end program 2.1 ———————————–

12
Compile and run the above program and carefully note lines A and B and
that the program prints out the same values in either case. Also observe how
we dereferenced our pointer in line B, i.e. we first added i to it and then
dereferenced the new pointer. Change line B to read:
printf("ptr + %d = %d\n",i, *ptr++);
and run it again... then change it to:
printf("ptr + %d = %d\n",i, *(++ptr));
and try once more. Each time try and predict the outcome and carefully look
at the actual outcome.
In C, the standard states that wherever we might use &var_name[0] we
can replace that with var_name, thus in our code where we wrote:
ptr = &my_array[0];
we can write:
ptr = my_array;
to achieve the same result.
This leads many texts to state that the name of an array is a pointer. I prefer
to mentally think "the name of the array is the address of first element in
the array". Many beginners (including myself when I was learning) have a
tendency to become confused by thinking of it as a pointer. For example,
while we can write
ptr = my_array;
we cannot write
my_array = ptr;
The reason is that while ptr is a variable, my_array is a constant. That is,
the location at which the first element of my_array will be stored cannot
be changed once my_array[] has been declared.
Earlier when discussing the term "lvalue" I cited K&R-2 where it stated:
"An object is a named region of storage; an lvalue is an expression
referring to an object".

13
This raises an interesting problem. Since my_array is a named region of
storage, why is my_array in the above assignment statement not an lvalue?
To resolve this problem, some refer to my_array as an "unmodifiable lvalue".
Modify the example program above by changing
ptr = &my_array[0];
to
ptr = my_array;
and run it again to verify the results are identical.
Now, let’s delve a little further into the difference between the names ptr
and my_array as used above. Some writers will refer to an array’s name
as a constant pointer. What do we mean by that? Well, to understand
the term "constant" in this sense, let’s go back to our definition of the term
"variable". When we declare a variable we set aside a spot in memory to hold
the value of the appropriate type. Once that is done the name of the variable
can be interpreted in one of two ways. When used on the left side of the
assignment operator, the compiler interprets it as the memory location to
which to move that value resulting from evaluation of the right side of the
assignment operator. But, when used on the right side of the assignment
operator, the name of a variable is interpreted to mean the contents stored at
that memory address set aside to hold the value of that variable.
With that in mind, let’s now consider the simplest of constants, as in:
int i, k;
i = 2;
Here, while i is a variable and then occupies space in the data portion of
memory, 2 is a constant and, as such, instead of setting aside memory in the
data segment, it is imbedded directly in the code segment of memory. That
is, while writing something like k = i; tells the compiler to create code which
at run time will look at memory location &i to determine the value to be
moved to k, code created by i = 2; simply puts the 2 in the code and there
is no referencing of the data segment. That is, both k and i are objects, but
2 is not an object.
Similarly, in the above, since my_array is a constant, once the compiler
establishes where the array itself is to be stored, it "knows" the address of

14
my_array[0] and on seeing:
ptr = my_array;
it simply uses this address as a constant in the code segment and there is no
referencing of the data segment beyond that.
This might be a good place explain further the use of the (void *) expression
used in Program 1.1 of Chapter 1. As we have seen we can have pointers
of various types. So far we have discussed pointers to integers and pointers
to characters. In coming chapters we will be learning about pointers to
structures and even pointer to pointers.
Also we have learned that on different systems the size of a pointer can vary.
As it turns out it is also possible that the size of a pointer can vary depending
on the data type of the object to which it points. Thus, as with integers where
you can run into trouble attempting to assign a long integer to a variable of
type short integer, you can run into trouble attempting to assign the values
of pointers of various types to pointer variables of other types.
To minimize this problem, C provides for a pointer of type void. We can
declare such a pointer by writing:
void *vptr;
A void pointer is sort of a generic pointer. For example, while C will not
permit the comparison of a pointer to type integer with a pointer to type
character, for example, either of these can be compared to a void pointer. Of
course, as with other variables, casts can be used to convert from one type
of pointer to another under the proper circumstances. In Program 1.1. of
Chapter 1 I cast the pointers to integers into void pointers to make them
compatible with the %p conversion specification. In later chapters other casts
will be made for reasons defined therein.
Well, that’s a lot of technical stuff to digest and I don’t expect a beginner to
understand all of it on first reading. With time and experimentation you will
want to come back and re-read the first 2 chapters. But for now, let’s move
on to the relationship between pointers, character arrays, and strings.

15
CHAPTER 3: Pointers and Strings
The study of strings is useful to further tie in the relationship between pointers
and arrays. It also makes it easy to illustrate how some of the standard C
string functions can be implemented. Finally it illustrates how and when
pointers can and should be passed to functions.
In C, strings are arrays of characters. This is not necessarily true in other
languages. In BASIC, Pascal, Fortran and various other languages, a string
has its own data type. But in C it does not. In C a string is an array of
characters terminated with a binary zero character (written as ’\0’). To
start off our discussion we will write some code which, while preferred for
illustrative purposes, you would probably never write in an actual program.
Consider, for example:
char my_string[40];

my_string[0] = 'T';
my_string[1] = 'e';
my_string[2] = 'd':
my_string[3] = '\0';
While one would never build a string like this, the end result is a string in
that it is an array of characters terminated with a nul character. By
definition, in C, a string is an array of characters terminated with the nul
character. Be aware that "nul" is not the same as "NULL". The nul refers
to a zero as defined by the escape sequence ’\0’. That is it occupies one
byte of memory. NULL, on the other hand, is the name of the macro used to
initialize null pointers. NULL is #defined in a header file in your C compiler,
nul may not be #defined at all.
Since writing the above code would be very time consuming, C permits two
alternate ways of achieving the same thing. First, one might write:
char my_string[40] = {'T', 'e', 'd', '\0',};
But this also takes more typing than is convenient. So, C permits:
char my_string[40] = "Ted";
When the double quotes are used, instead of the single quotes as was done in
the previous examples, the nul character ( ’\0’ ) is automatically appended

16
to the end of the string.
In all of the above cases, the same thing happens. The compiler sets aside an
contiguous block of memory 40 bytes long to hold characters and initialized
it such that the first 4 characters are Ted\0.
Now, consider the following program:
———– Program 3.1 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>

char strA[80] = "A string to be used for demonstration purposes";

char strB[80];

int main(void)
{

char *pA; /* a pointer to type character */

char *pB; /* another pointer to type character */
puts(strA); /* show string A */
pA = strA; /* point pA at string A */
puts(pA); /* show what pA is pointing to */
pB = strB; /* point pB at string B */
putchar('\n'); /* move down one line on the screen */
while(*pA != '\0') /* line A (see text) */
{
*pB++ = *pA++; /* line B (see text) */
}
*pB = '\0'; /* line C (see text) */
puts(strB); /* show strB on screen */
return 0;
}
——— end program 3.1 ———————————–
In the above we start out by defining two character arrays of 80 characters
each. Since these are globally defined, they are initialized to all ’\0’s first.
Then, strA has the first 42 characters initialized to the string in quotes.
Now, moving into the code, we declare two character pointers and show the

17
string on the screen. We then "point" the pointer pA at strA. That is, by
means of the assignment statement we copy the address of strA[0] into our
variable pA. We now use puts() to show that which is pointed to by pA on
the screen. Consider here that the function prototype for puts() is:
int puts(const char *s);
For the moment, ignore the const. The parameter passed to puts() is a
pointer, that is the value of a pointer (since all parameters in C are passed
by value), and the value of a pointer is the address to which it points, or,
simply, an address. Thus when we write puts(strA); as we have seen, we
are passing the address of strA[0].
Similarly, when we write puts(pA); we are passing the same address, since
we have set pA = strA;
Given that, follow the code down to the while() statement on line A. Line A
states:
While the character pointed to by pA (i.e. *pA) is not a nul character (i.e.
the terminating ’\0’), do the following:
Line B states: copy the character pointed to by pA to the space pointed to
by pB, then increment pA so it points to the next character and pB so it
points to the next space.
When we have copied the last character, pA now points to the terminating nul
character and the loop ends. However, we have not copied the nul character.
And, by definition a string in C must be nul terminated. So, we add the nul
character with line C.
It is very educational to run this program with your debugger while watching
strA, strB, pA and pB and single stepping through the program. It is even
more educational if instead of simply defining strB[] as has been done above,
initialize it also with something like:
strB[80] = "12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890"
where the number of digits used is greater than the length of strA and then
repeat the single stepping procedure while watching the above variables. Give
these things a try!
Getting back to the prototype for puts() for a moment, the "const" used as

18
a parameter modifier informs the user that the function will not modify the
string pointed to by s, i.e. it will treat that string as a constant.
Of course, what the above program illustrates is a simple way of copying a
string. After playing with the above until you have a good understanding of
what is happening, we can proceed to creating our own replacement for the
standard strcpy() that comes with C. It might look like:
char *my_strcpy(char *destination, char *source)
{
char *p = destination;
while (*source != '\0')
{
*p++ = *source++;
}
*p = '\0';
return destination;
}
In this case, I have followed the practice used in the standard routine of
returning a pointer to the destination.
Again, the function is designed to accept the values of two character pointers,
i.e. addresses, and thus in the previous program we could write:
int main(void)
{
my_strcpy(strB, strA);
puts(strB);
}
I have deviated slightly from the form used in standard C which would have
the prototype:
char *my_strcpy(char *destination, const char *source);
Here the "const" modifier is used to assure the user that the function will not
modify the contents pointed to by the source pointer. You can prove this
by modifying the function above, and its prototype, to include the "const"
modifier as shown. Then, within the function you can add a statement which
attempts to change the contents of that which is pointed to by source, such
as:

19
 *source = 'X';
which would normally change the first character of the string to an X. The
const modifier should cause your compiler to catch this as an error. Try it
and see.
Now, let’s consider some of the things the above examples have shown us.
First off, consider the fact that *ptr++ is to be interpreted as returning the
value pointed to by ptr and then incrementing the pointer value. This has
to do with the precedence of the operators. Were we to write (*ptr)++ we
would increment, not the pointer, but that which the pointer points to! i.e.
if used on the first character of the above example string the ’T’ would be
incremented to a ’U’. You can write some simple example code to illustrate
this.
Recall again that a string is nothing more than an array of characters, with
the last character being a ’\0’. What we have done above is deal with copying
an array. It happens to be an array of characters but the technique could
be applied to an array of integers, doubles, etc. In those cases, however, we
would not be dealing with strings and hence the end of the array would not
be marked with a special value like the nul character. We could implement a
version that relied on a special value to identify the end. For example, we
could copy an array of positive integers by marking the end with a negative
integer. On the other hand, it is more usual that when we write a function to
copy an array of items other than strings we pass the function the number of
items to be copied as well as the address of the array, e.g. something like the
following prototype might indicate:
void int_copy(int *ptrA, int *ptrB, int nbr);
where nbr is the number of integers to be copied. You might want to play
with this idea and create an array of integers and see if you can write the
function int_copy() and make it work.
This permits using functions to manipulate large arrays. For example, if we
have an array of 5000 integers that we want to manipulate with a function,
we need only pass to that function the address of the array (and any auxiliary
information such as nbr above, depending on what we are doing). The array
itself does not get passed, i.e. the whole array is not copied and put on the
stack before calling the function, only its address is sent.

20
This is different from passing, say an integer, to a function. When we pass
an integer we make a copy of the integer, i.e. get its value and put it on the
stack. Within the function any manipulation of the value passed can in no
way effect the original integer. But, with arrays and pointers we can pass
the address of the variable and hence manipulate the values of the original
variables.

21
CHAPTER 4: More on Strings
Well, we have progressed quite a way in a short time! Let’s back up a little
and look at what was done in Chapter 3 on copying of strings but in a different
light. Consider the following function:
char *my_strcpy(char dest[], char source[])
{
int i = 0;
while (source[i] != '\0')
{
dest[i] = source[i];
i++;
}
dest[i] = '\0';
return dest;
}
Recall that strings are arrays of characters. Here we have chosen to use array
notation instead of pointer notation to do the actual copying. The results are
the same, i.e. the string gets copied using this notation just as accurately as
it did before. This raises some interesting points which we will discuss.
Since parameters are passed by value, in both the passing of a character
pointer or the name of the array as above, what actually gets passed is the
address of the first element of each array. Thus, the numerical value of the
parameter passed is the same whether we use a character pointer or an array
name as a parameter. This would tend to imply that somehow source[i] is
the same as *(p+i).
In fact, this is true, i.e wherever one writes a[i] it can be replaced with *(a
+ i) without any problems. In fact, the compiler will create the same code
in either case. Thus we see that pointer arithmetic is the same thing as array
indexing. Either syntax produces the same result.
This is NOT saying that pointers and arrays are the same thing, they are not.
We are only saying that to identify a given element of an array we have the
choice of two syntaxes, one using array indexing and the other using pointer
arithmetic, which yield identical results.
Now, looking at this last expression, part of it.. (a + i), is a simple addition

22
using the + operator and the rules of C state that such an expression is
commutative. That is (a + i) is identical to (i + a). Thus we could write
*(i + a) just as easily as *(a + i).
But *(i + a) could have come from i[a] ! From all of this comes the curious
truth that if:
char a[20];
int i;
writing
a[3] = 'x';
is the same as writing
3[a] = 'x';
Try it! Set up an array of characters, integers or longs, etc. and assigned the
3rd or 4th element a value using the conventional approach and then print
out that value to be sure you have that working. Then reverse the array
notation as I have done above. A good compiler will not balk and the results
will be identical. A curiosity... nothing more!
Now, looking at our function above, when we write:
dest[i] = source[i];
due to the fact that array indexing and pointer arithmetic yield identical
results, we can write this as:
*(dest + i) = *(source + i);
But, this takes 2 additions for each value taken on by i. Additions, generally
speaking, take more time than incrementations (such as those done using
the ++ operator as in i++). This may not be true in modern optimizing
compilers, but one can never be sure. Thus, the pointer version may be a bit
faster than the array version.
Another way to speed up the pointer version would be to change:
while (*source != '\0')
to simply
while (*source)

23
since the value within the parenthesis will go to zero (FALSE) at the same
time in either case.
At this point you might want to experiment a bit with writing some of
your own programs using pointers. Manipulating strings is a good place to
experiment. You might want to write your own versions of such standard
functions as:
strlen();
strcat();
strchr();
and any others you might have on your system.
We will come back to strings and their manipulation through pointers in a
future chapter. For now, let’s move on and discuss structures for a bit.

24
CHAPTER 5: Pointers and Structures
As you may know, we can declare the form of a block of data containing
different data types by means of a structure declaration. For example, a
personnel file might contain structures which look something like:
struct tag {
char lname[20]; /* last name */
char fname[20]; /* first name */
int age; /* age */
float rate; /* e.g. 12.75 per hour */
};
Let’s say we have a bunch of these structures in a disk file and we want to
read each one out and print out the first and last name of each one so that
we can have a list of the people in our files. The remaining information will
not be printed out. We will want to do this printing with a function call and
pass to that function a pointer to the structure at hand. For demonstration
purposes I will use only one structure for now. But realize the goal is the
writing of the function, not the reading of the file which, presumably, we
know how to do.
For review, recall that we can access structure members with the dot operator
as in:
———– Program 5.1 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

struct tag {
char lname[20]; /* last name */
char fname[20]; /* first name */
int age; /* age */
float rate; /* e.g. 12.75 per hour */
};

struct tag my_struct; /* declare the structure my_struct */

int main(void)

25
{
strcpy(my_struct.lname,"Jensen");
strcpy(my_struct.fname,"Ted");
printf("\n%s ",my_struct.fname);
printf("%s\n",my_struct.lname);
return 0;
}
——— end program 5.1 ———————————–
Now, this particular structure is rather small compared to many used in C
programs. To the above we might want to add:
date_of_hire; (data types not shown)
date_of_last_raise;
last_percent_increase;
emergency_phone;
medical_plan;
Social_S_Nbr;
etc.....
If we have a large number of employees, what we want to do is manipulate
the data in these structures by means of functions. For example we might
want a function print out the name of the employee listed in any structure
passed to it. However, in the original C (Kernighan & Ritchie, 1st Edition) it
was not possible to pass a structure, only a pointer to a structure could be
passed. In ANSI C, it is now permissible to pass the complete structure. But,
since our goal here is to learn more about pointers, we won’t pursue that.
Anyway, if we pass the whole structure it means that we must copy the
contents of the structure from the calling function to the called function. In
systems using stacks, this is done by pushing the contents of the structure on
the stack. With large structures this could prove to be a problem. However,
passing a pointer uses a minimum amount of stack space.
In any case, since this is a discussion of pointers, we will discuss how we go
about passing a pointer to a structure and then using it within the function.
Consider the case described, i.e. we want a function that will accept as a
parameter a pointer to a structure and from within that function we want to
access members of the structure. For example we want to print out the name

26
of the employee in our example structure.
Okay, so we know that our pointer is going to point to a structure declared
using struct tag. We declare such a pointer with the declaration:
struct tag *st_ptr;
and we point it to our example structure with:
st_ptr = &my_struct;
Now, we can access a given member by de-referencing the pointer. But, how
do we de-reference the pointer to a structure? Well, consider the fact that
we might want to use the pointer to set the age of the employee. We would
write:
(*st_ptr).age = 63;
Look at this carefully. It says, replace that within the parenthesis with that
which st_ptr points to, which is the structure my_struct. Thus, this
breaks down to the same as my_struct.age.
However, this is a fairly often used expression and the designers of C have
created an alternate syntax with the same meaning which is:
st_ptr->age = 63;
With that in mind, look at the following program:
———– Program 5.2 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

struct tag{ /* the structure type */

char lname[20]; /* last name */
char fname[20]; /* first name */
int age; /* age */
float rate; /* e.g. 12.75 per hour */
};

struct tag my_struct; /* define the structure */

void show_name(struct tag *p); /* function prototype */

27
int main(void)
{
struct tag *st_ptr; /* a pointer to a structure */
st_ptr = &my_struct; /* point the pointer to my_struct */
strcpy(my_struct.lname,"Jensen");
strcpy(my_struct.fname,"Ted");
printf("\n%s ",my_struct.fname);
printf("%s\n",my_struct.lname);
my_struct.age = 63;
show_name(st_ptr); /* pass the pointer */
return 0;
}

void show_name(struct tag *p)

{
printf("\n%s ", p->fname); /* p points to a structure */
printf("%s ", p->lname);
printf("%d\n", p->age);
}
——— end program 5.2 ————————————-
Again, this is a lot of information to absorb at one time. The reader should
compile and run the various code snippets and using a debugger monitor
things like my_struct and p while single stepping through the main and
following the code down into the function to see what is happening.

28
CHAPTER 6: Some more on Strings, and Arrays of
Strings
Well, let’s go back to strings for a bit. In the following all assignments are to
be understood as being global, i.e. made outside of any function, including
main().
We pointed out in an earlier chapter that we could write:
char my_string[40] = "Ted";
which would allocate space for a 40 byte array and put the string in the
first 4 bytes (three for the characters in the quotes and a 4th to handle the
terminating ’\0’).
Actually, if all we wanted to do was store the name "Ted" we could write:
char my_name[] = "Ted";
and the compiler would count the characters, leave room for the nul character
and store the total of the four characters in memory the location of which
would be returned by the array name, in this case my_name.
In some code, instead of the above, you might see:
char *my_name = "Ted";
which is an alternate approach. Is there a difference between these? The
answer is.. yes. Using the array notation 4 bytes of storage in the static
memory block are taken up, one for each character and one for the terminating
nul character. But, in the pointer notation the same 4 bytes required, plus
N bytes to store the pointer variable my_name (where N depends on the
system but is usually a minimum of 2 bytes and can be 4 or more).
In the array notation, my_name is short for &myname[0] which is the
address of the first element of the array. Since the location of the array is
fixed during run time, this is a constant (not a variable). In the pointer
notation my_name is a variable. As to which is the better method, that
depends on what you are going to do within the rest of the program.
Let’s now go one step further and consider what happens if each of these
declarations are done within a function as opposed to globally outside the
bounds of any function.

29
void my_function_A(char *ptr)
{
char a[] = "ABCDE"
.
.
}

void my_function_B(char *ptr)

{
char *cp = "FGHIJ"
.
.
}
In the case of my_function_A, the content, or value(s), of the array a[] is
considered to be the data. The array is said to be initialized to the values
ABCDE. In the case of my_function_B, the value of the pointer cp is
considered to be the data. The pointer has been initialized to point to
the string FGHIJ. In both my_function_A and my_function_B the
definitions are local variables and thus the string ABCDE is stored on the
stack, as is the value of the pointer cp. The string FGHIJ can be stored
anywhere. On my system it gets stored in the data segment.
By the way, array initialization of automatic variables as I have done in
my_function_A was illegal in the older K&R C and only "came of age" in
the newer ANSI C. A fact that may be important when one is considering
portability and backwards compatibility.
As long as we are discussing the relationship/differences between pointers
and arrays, let’s move on to multi-dimensional arrays. Consider, for example
the array:
char multi[5][10];
Just what does this mean? Well, let’s consider it in the following light.
char multi[5][10];
Let’s take the underlined part to be the "name" of an array. Then prepending
the char and appending the [10] we have an array of 10 characters. But, the

30
name multi[5] is itself an array indicating that there are 5 elements each
being an array of 10 characters. Hence we have an array of 5 arrays of 10
characters each..
Assume we have filled this two dimensional array with data of some kind.
In memory, it might look as if it had been formed by initializing 5 separate
arrays using something like:
multi[0] = {'0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9'}
multi[1] = {'a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j'}
multi[2] = {'A','B','C','D','E','F','G','H','I','J'}
multi[3] = {'9','8','7','6','5','4','3','2','1','0'}
multi[4] = {'J','I','H','G','F','E','D','C','B','A'}
At the same time, individual elements might be addressable using syntax
such as:
multi[0][3] = '3'
multi[1][7] = 'h'
multi[4][0] = 'J'
Since arrays are contiguous in memory, our actual memory block for the
above should look like:
0123456789abcdefghijABCDEFGHIJ9876543210JIHGFEDCBA
^
|_____ starting at the address &multi[0][0]
Note that I did not write multi[0] = "0123456789". Had I done so a
terminating ’\0’ would have been implied since whenever double quotes are
used a ’\0’ character is appended to the characters contained within those
quotes. Had that been the case I would have had to set aside room for 11
characters per row instead of 10.
My goal in the above is to illustrate how memory is laid out for 2 dimensional
arrays. That is, this is a 2 dimensional array of characters, NOT an array of
"strings".
Now, the compiler knows how many columns are present in the array so it
can interpret multi + 1 as the address of the ’a’ in the 2nd row above. That
is, it adds 10, the number of columns, to get this location. If we were dealing
with integers and an array with the same dimension the compiler would add

31
10*sizeof(int) which, on my machine, would be 20. Thus, the address of the
9 in the 4th row above would be &multi[3][0] or *(multi + 3) in pointer
notation. To get to the content of the 2nd element in the 4th row we add 1
to this address and dereference the result as in
*(*(multi + 3) + 1)
With a little thought we can see that:
*(*(multi + row) + col) and
multi[row][col] yield the same results.
The following program illustrates this using integer arrays instead of character
arrays.
———– Program 2.1 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>

int my_array[] = {1,23,17,4,-5,100};

int *ptr;

int main(void)
{
int i;
ptr = &my_array[0]; /* point our pointer to the first
element of the array */
printf("\n\n");
for (i = 0; i < 6; i++)
{
printf("my_array[%d] = %3d\t",i,my_array[i]); /*<-- A */
printf("ptr + %d = %3d\n",i, *(ptr + i)); /*<-- B */
}
return 0;
}
——— end program 2.1 ———————————–
Because of the double de-referencing required in the pointer version, the name
of a 2 dimensional array is often said to be equivalent to a pointer to a pointer.
With a three dimensional array we would be dealing with an array of arrays
of arrays and some might say its name would be equivalent to a pointer to

32
a pointer to a pointer. However, here we have initially set aside the block
of memory for the array by defining it using array notation. Hence, we are
dealing with a constant, not a variable. That is we are talking about a fixed
address not a variable pointer. The dereferencing function used above permits
us to access any element in the array of arrays without the need of changing
the value of that address (the address of multi[0][0] as given by the symbol
multi).

33
CHAPTER 7: More on Multi-Dimensional Arrays
In the previous chapter we noted that given
#define ROWS 5
#define COLS 10

int multi[ROWS][COLS];
we can access individual elements of the array multi using either:
multi[row][col]
or
*(*(multi + row) + col)
To understand more fully what is going on, let us replace
*(multi + row)
with X as in:
*(X + col)
Now, from this we see that X is like a pointer since the expression is de-
referenced and we know that col is an integer. Here the arithmetic being
used is of a special kind called "pointer arithmetic" is being used. That means
that, since we are talking about an integer array, the address pointed to by
(i.e. value of) X + col + 1 must be greater than the address X + col by
and amount equal to sizeof(int).
Since we know the memory layout for 2 dimensional arrays, we can determine
that in the expression multi + row as used above, multi + row + 1 must
increase by value an amount equal to that needed to "point to" the next row,
which in this case would be an amount equal to COLS * sizeof(int).
That says that if the expression *(*(multi + row) + col) is to be evaluated
correctly at run time, the compiler must generate code which takes into
consideration the value of COLS, i.e. the 2nd dimension. Because of the
equivalence of the two forms of expression, this is true whether we are using
the pointer expression as here or the array expression multi[row][col].
Thus, to evaluate either expression, a total of 5 values must be known:

34
 1. The address of the first element of the array, which is returned by the
expression multi, i.e., the name of the array.
2. The size of the type of the elements of the array, in this case sizeof(int).
3. The 2nd dimension of the array
4. The specific index value for the first dimension, row in this case.
5. The specific index value for the second dimension, col in this case.
Given all of that, consider the problem of designing a function to manipulate
the element values of a previously declared array. For example, one which
would set all the elements of the array multi to the value 1.
void set_value(int m_array[][COLS])
{
int row, col;
for (row = 0; row < ROWS; row++)
{
for (col = 0; col < COLS; col++)
{
m_array[row][col] = 1;
}
}
}
And to call this function we would then use:
set_value(multi);
Now, within the function we have used the values #defined by ROWS and
COLS that set the limits on the for loops. But, these #defines are just
constants as far as the compiler is concerned, i.e. there is nothing to connect
them to the array size within the function. row and col are local variables,
of course. The formal parameter definition permits the compiler to determine
the characteristics associated with the pointer value that will be passed at run
time. We really don’t need the first dimension and, as will be seen later, there
are occasions where we would prefer not to define it within the parameter
definition, out of habit or consistency, I have not used it here. But, the second
dimension must be used as has been shown in the expression for the parameter.
The reason is that we need this in the evaluation of m_array[row][col] as
has been described. While the parameter defines the data type (int in this
case) and the automatic variables for row and column are defined in the for

35
loops, only one value can be passed using a single parameter. In this case,
that is the value of multi as noted in the call statement, i.e. the address of
the first element, often referred to as a pointer to the array. Thus, the only
way we have of informing the compiler of the 2nd dimension is by explicitly
including it in the parameter definition.
In fact, in general all dimensions of higher order than one are needed when
dealing with multi-dimensional arrays. That is if we are talking about 3
dimensional arrays, the 2nd and 3rd dimension must be specified in the
parameter definition.

36
CHAPTER 8: Pointers to Arrays
Pointers, of course, can be "pointed at" any type of data object, including
arrays. While that was evident when we discussed program 3.1, it is important
to expand on how we do this when it comes to multi-dimensional arrays.
To review, in Chapter 2 we stated that given an array of integers we could
point an integer pointer at that array using:
int *ptr;
ptr = &my_array[0]; /* point our pointer at the first
integer in our array */
As we stated there, the type of the pointer variable must match the type of
the first element of the array.
In addition, we can use a pointer as a formal parameter of a function which
is designed to manipulate an array. e.g.
Given:
int array[3] = {'1', '5', '7'};
void a_func(int *p);
Some programmers might prefer to write the function prototype as:
void a_func(int p[]);
which would tend to inform others who might use this function that the
function is designed to manipulate the elements of an array. Of course, in
either case, what actually gets passed is the value of a pointer to the first
element of the array, independent of which notation is used in the function
prototype or definition. Note that if the array notation is used, there is no
need to pass the actual dimension of the array since we are not passing the
whole array, only the address to the first element.
We now turn to the problem of the 2 dimensional array. As stated in the last
chapter, C interprets a 2 dimensional array as an array of one dimensional
arrays. That being the case, the first element of a 2 dimensional array of
integers is a one dimensional array of integers. And a pointer to a two
dimensional array of integers must be a pointer to that data type. One way
of accomplishing this is through the use of the keyword "typedef". typedef
assigns a new name to a specified data type. For example:

37
 typedef unsigned char byte;
causes the name byte to mean type unsigned char. Hence
byte b[10]; would be an array of unsigned characters.
Note that in the typedef declaration, the word byte has replaced that which
would normally be the name of our unsigned char. That is, the rule for
using typedef is that the new name for the data type is the name used in
the definition of the data type. Thus in:
typedef int Array[10];
Array becomes a data type for an array of 10 integers. i.e. Array my_arr;
declares my_arr as an array of 10 integers and Array arr2d[5]; makes
arr2d an array of 5 arrays of 10 integers each.
Also note that Array *p1d; makes p1d a pointer to an array of 10 integers.
Because *p1d points to the same type as arr2d, assigning the address of the
two dimensional array arr2d to p1d, the pointer to a one dimensional array
of 10 integers is acceptable. i.e. p1d = &arr2d[0]; or p1d = arr2d; are
both correct.
Since the data type we use for our pointer is an array of 10 integers we would
expect that incrementing p1d by 1 would change its value by 10*sizeof(int),
which it does. That is, sizeof(*p1d) is 20. You can prove this to yourself by
writing and running a simple short program.
Now, while using typedef makes things clearer for the reader and easier on the
programmer, it is not really necessary. What we need is a way of declaring a
pointer like p1d without the need of the typedef keyword. It turns out that
this can be done and that
int (*p1d)[10];
is the proper declaration, i.e. p1d here is a pointer to an array of 10 integers
just as it was under the declaration using the Array type. Note that this is
different from
int *p1d[10];
which would make p1d the name of an array of 10 pointers to type int.

38
CHAPTER 9: Pointers and Dynamic Allocation of Mem-
ory
There are times when it is convenient to allocate memory at run time using
malloc(), calloc(), or other allocation functions. Using this approach permits
postponing the decision on the size of the memory block need to store an
array, for example, until run time. Or it permits using a section of memory
for the storage of an array of integers at one point in time, and then when
that memory is no longer needed it can be freed up for other uses, such as
the storage of an array of structures.
When memory is allocated, the allocating function (such as malloc(), cal-
loc(), etc.) returns a pointer. The type of this pointer depends on whether
you are using an older K&R compiler or the newer ANSI type compiler. With
the older compiler the type of the returned pointer is char, with the ANSI
compiler it is void.
If you are using an older compiler, and you want to allocate memory for an
array of integers you will have to cast the char pointer returned to an integer
pointer. For example, to allocate space for 10 integers we might write:
int *iptr;
iptr = (int *)malloc(10 * sizeof(int));
if (iptr == NULL)

{ .. ERROR ROUTINE GOES HERE .. }

If you are using an ANSI compliant compiler, malloc() returns a void pointer
and since a void pointer can be assigned to a pointer variable of any object
type, the (int *) cast shown above is not needed. The array dimension can
be determined at run time and is not needed at compile time. That is, the 10
above could be a variable read in from a data file or keyboard, or calculated
based on some need, at run time.
Because of the equivalence between array and pointer notation, once iptr has
been assigned as above, one can use the array notation. For example, one
could write:
int k;
for (k = 0; k < 10; k++)
iptr[k] = 2;

39
to set the values of all elements to 2.
Even with a reasonably good understanding of pointers and arrays, one place
the newcomer to C is likely to stumble at first is in the dynamic allocation
of multi-dimensional arrays. In general, we would like to be able to access
elements of such arrays using array notation, not pointer notation, wherever
possible. Depending on the application we may or may not know both
dimensions at compile time. This leads to a variety of ways to go about our
task.
As we have seen, when dynamically allocating a one dimensional array its
dimension can be determined at run time. Now, when using dynamic allocation
of higher order arrays, we never need to know the first dimension at compile
time. Whether we need to know the higher dimensions depends on how we go
about writing the code. Here I will discuss various methods of dynamically
allocating room for 2 dimensional arrays of integers.
First we will consider cases where the 2nd dimension is known at compile
time.
METHOD 1:
One way of dealing with the problem is through the use of the typedef
keyword. To allocate a 2 dimensional array of integers recall that the following
two notations result in the same object code being generated:
multi[row][col] = 1; *(*(multi + row) + col) = 1;
It is also true that the following two notations generate the same code:
multi[row] *(multi + row)
Since the one on the right must evaluate to a pointer, the array notation on
the left must also evaluate to a pointer. In fact multi[0] will return a pointer
to the first integer in the first row, multi[1] a pointer to the first integer of
the second row, etc. Actually, multi[n] evaluates to a pointer to that array
of integers that make up the n-th row of our 2 dimensional array. That is,
multi can be thought of as an array of arrays and multi[n] as a pointer to
the n-th array of this array of arrays. Here the word pointer is being used
to represent an address value. While such usage is common in the literature,
when reading such statements one must be careful to distinguish between the
constant address of an array and a variable pointer which is a data object in

40
itself.
Consider now:
———– Program 9.1 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#define COLS 5

typedef int RowArray[COLS];

RowArray *rptr;

int main(void)
{
int nrows = 10;
int row, col;
rptr = malloc(nrows * COLS * sizeof(int));
for (row = 0; row < nrows; row++)
{
for (col = 0; col < COLS; col++)
{
rptr[row][col] = 17;
}
}

return 0;
}
——— end program 9.1 ———————————–
Here I have assumed an ANSI compiler so a cast on the void pointer returned
by malloc() is not required. If you are using an older K&R compiler you
will have to cast using:
rptr = (RowArray *)malloc(.... etc.
Using this approach, rptr has all the characteristics of an array name name,
(except that rptr is modifiable), and array notation may be used throughout
the rest of the program. That also means that if you intend to write a function

41
to modify the array contents, you must use COLS as a part of the formal
parameter in that function, just as we did when discussing the passing of two
dimensional arrays to a function.
METHOD 2:
In the METHOD 1 above, rptr turned out to be a pointer to type "one
dimensional array of COLS integers". It turns out that there is syntax which
can be used for this type without the need of typedef. If we write:
int (*xptr)[COLS];
the variable xptr will have all the same characteristics as the variable rptr
in METHOD 1 above, and we need not use the typedef keyword. Here xptr
is a pointer to an array of integers and the size of that array is given by the
#defined COLS. The parenthesis placement makes the pointer notation
predominate, even though the array notation has higher precedence. i.e. had
we written
int *xptr[COLS];
we would have defined xptr as an array of pointers holding the number of
pointers equal to that #defined by COLS. That is not the same thing at all.
However, arrays of pointers have their use in the dynamic allocation of two
dimensional arrays, as will be seen in the next 2 methods.
METHOD 3:
Consider the case where we do not know the number of elements in each row
at compile time, i.e. both the number of rows and number of columns must
be determined at run time. One way of doing this would be to create an array
of pointers to type int and then allocate space for each row and point these
pointers at each row. Consider:
———– Program 9.2 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(void)
{
int nrows = 5; /* Both nrows and ncols could be evaluated */
int ncols = 10; /* or read in at run time */

42
 int row;
int **rowptr;
rowptr = malloc(nrows * sizeof(int *));
if (rowptr == NULL)
{
puts("\nFailure to allocate room for row pointers.\n");
exit(0);
}

printf("\n\n\nIndex Pointer(hex) Pointer(dec) Diff.(dec)");

for (row = 0; row < nrows; row++)

{
rowptr[row] = malloc(ncols * sizeof(int));
if (rowptr[row] == NULL)
{
printf("\nFailure to allocate for row[%d]\n",row);
exit(0);
}
printf("\n%d %p %lu", row, (void *)rowptr[row], (unsigned
if (row > 0)
printf(" %d",(int)(rowptr[row] - rowptr[row-1]));
}
printf("\n");

return 0;
}
——— end program 9.2 ———————————–
In the above code rowptr is a pointer to pointer to type int. In this case it
points to the first element of an array of pointers to type int. Consider the
number of calls to malloc():
To get the array of pointers 1 call
To get space for the rows 5 calls
-----
Total 6 calls
If you choose to use this approach note that while you can use the array

43
notation to access individual elements of the array, e.g. rowptr[row][col]
= 17;, it does not mean that the data in the "two dimensional array" is
contiguous in memory.
You can, however, use the array notation just as if it were a continuous block
of memory. For example, you can write:
rowptr[row][col] = 176;
just as if rowptr were the name of a two dimensional array created at compile
time. Of course row and col must be within the bounds of the array you
have created, just as with an array created at compile time.
If you want to have a contiguous block of memory dedicated to the storage of
the elements in the array you can do it as follows:
METHOD 4:
In this method we allocate a block of memory to hold the whole array first.
We then create an array of pointers to point to each row. Thus even though
the array of pointers is being used, the actual array in memory is contiguous.
The code looks like this:
———– Program 9.3 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(void)
{
int **rptr;
int *aptr;
int *testptr;
int k;
int nrows = 5; /* Both nrows and ncols could be evaluated */
int ncols = 8; /* or read in at run time */
int row, col;

/* we now allocate the memory for the array */

aptr = malloc(nrows * ncols * sizeof(int));

if (aptr == NULL)

44
{
puts("\nFailure to allocate room for the array");
exit(0);
}

/* next we allocate room for the pointers to the rows */

rptr = malloc(nrows * sizeof(int *));

if (rptr == NULL)
{
puts("\nFailure to allocate room for pointers");
exit(0);
}

/* and now we 'point' the pointers */

for (k = 0; k < nrows; k++)

{
rptr[k] = aptr + (k * ncols);
}

/* Now we illustrate how the row pointers are incremented */

printf("\n\nIllustrating how row pointers are incremented");
printf("\n\nIndex Pointer(hex) Diff.(dec)");

for (row = 0; row < nrows; row++)

{
printf("\n%d %p", row, (void *)rptr[row]);
if (row > 0)
printf(" %ld",(rptr[row] - rptr[row-1]));
}
printf("\n\nAnd now we print out the array\n");
for (row = 0; row < nrows; row++)
{
for (col = 0; col < ncols; col++)
{
rptr[row][col] = row + col;
printf("%d ", rptr[row][col]);

45
 }
putchar('\n');
}

puts("\n");

/* and here we illustrate that we are, in fact, dealing with

a 2 dimensional array in a contiguous block of memory. */
printf("And now we demonstrate that they are contiguous in memory\n");

testptr = aptr;
for (row = 0; row < nrows; row++)
{
for (col = 0; col < ncols; col++)
{
printf("%d ", *(testptr++));
}
putchar('\n');
}

return 0;
}
——— end program 9.3 ———————————–
Consider again, the number of calls to malloc()
To get room for the array itself 1 call
To get room for the array of ptrs 1 call
----
Total 2 calls
Now, each call to malloc() creates additional space overhead since malloc()
is generally implemented by the operating system forming a linked list which
contains data concerning the size of the block. But, more importantly, with
large arrays (several hundred rows) keeping track of what needs to be freed
when the time comes can be more cumbersome. This, combined with the
contiguousness of the data block that permits initialization to all zeroes using
memset() would seem to make the second alternative the preferred one.

46
As a final example on multidimensional arrays we will illustrate the dynamic
allocation of a three dimensional array. This example will illustrate one more
thing to watch when doing this kind of allocation. For reasons cited above
we will use the approach outlined in alternative two. Consider the following
code:
———– Program 9.4 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stddef.h>

int X_DIM=16;
int Y_DIM=5;
int Z_DIM=3;

int main(void)
{
char *space;
char ***Arr3D;
int y, z;
ptrdiff_t diff;

/* first we set aside space for the array itself */

space = malloc(X_DIM * Y_DIM * Z_DIM * sizeof(char));

/* next we allocate space of an array of pointers, each

to eventually point to the first element of a
2 dimensional array of pointers to pointers */

Arr3D = malloc(Z_DIM * sizeof(char **));

/* and for each of these we assign a pointer to a newly

allocated array of pointers to a row */

for (z = 0; z < Z_DIM; z++)

{
Arr3D[z] = malloc(Y_DIM * sizeof(char *));

47
 /* and for each space in this array we put a pointer to
the first element of each row in the array space
originally allocated */

for (y = 0; y < Y_DIM; y++)

{
Arr3D[z][y] = space + (z*(X_DIM * Y_DIM) + y*X_DIM);
}
}

/* And, now we check each address in our 3D array to see if

the indexing of the Arr3d pointer leads through in a
continuous manner */

for (z = 0; z < Z_DIM; z++)

{
printf("Location of array %d is %p\n", z, *Arr3D[z]);
for ( y = 0; y < Y_DIM; y++)
{
printf(" Array %d and Row %d starts at %p", z, y, Arr3D[z][y]);
diff = Arr3D[z][y] - space;
printf(" diff = %ld ",diff);
printf(" z = %d y = %d\n", z, y);
}
}
return 0;
}
——— end program 9.4 ———————————–
If you have followed this tutorial up to this point you should have no problem
deciphering the above on the basis of the comments alone. There are a couple
of points that should be made however. Let’s start with the line which reads:
Arr3D[z][y] = space + (z*(X_DIM * Y_DIM) + y*X_DIM);
Note that here space is a character pointer, which is the same type as
Arr3D[z][y]. It is important that when adding an integer, such as that
obtained by evaluation of the expression (z*(X_DIM * Y_DIM) +

48
y*X_DIM), to a pointer, the result is a new pointer value. And when
assigning pointer values to pointer variables the data types of the value and
variable must match.

49
CHAPTER 10: Pointers to Functions
Up to this point we have been discussing pointers to data objects. C also
permits the declaration of pointers to functions. Pointers to functions have a
variety of uses and some of them will be discussed here.
Consider the following real problem. You want to write a function that
is capable of sorting virtually any collection of data that can be stored in
an array. This might be an array of strings, or integers, or floats, or even
structures. The sorting algorithm can be the same for all. For example, it
could be a simple bubble sort algorithm, or the more complex shell or quick
sort algorithm. We’ll use a simple bubble sort for demonstration purposes.
Sedgewick [1] has described the bubble sort using C code by setting up a
function which when passed a pointer to the array would sort it. If we call
that function bubble(), a sort program is described by bubble_1.c, which
follows:
———– Program 10.1 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>

int arr[10] = { 3,6,1,2,3,8,4,1,7,2};

void bubble(int a[], int N);

int main(void)
{
int i;
putchar('\n');
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
printf("%d ", arr[i]);
}
bubble(arr,10);
putchar('\n');

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{
printf("%d ", arr[i]);

50
 }
return 0;
}

void bubble(int a[], int N)

{
int i, j, t;
for (i = N-1; i >= 0; i--)
{
for (j = 1; j <= i; j++)
{
if (a[j-1] > a[j])
{
t = a[j-1];
a[j-1] = a[j];
a[j] = t;
}
}
}
}
——— end program 10.1 ———————————–
The bubble sort is one of the simpler sorts. The algorithm scans the array
from the second to the last element comparing each element with the one
which precedes it. If the one that precedes it is larger than the current
element, the two are swapped so the larger one is closer to the end of the
array. On the first pass, this results in the largest element ending up at the
end of the array. The array is now limited to all elements except the last and
the process repeated. This puts the next largest element at a point preceding
the largest element. The process is repeated for a number of times equal to
the number of elements minus 1. The end result is a sorted array.
Here our function is designed to sort an array of integers. Thus in line 1 we are
comparing integers and in lines 2 through 4 we are using temporary integer
storage to store integers. What we want to do now is see if we can convert
this code so we can use any data type, i.e. not be restricted to integers.
At the same time we don’t want to have to analyze our algorithm and the code
associated with it each time we use it. We start by removing the comparison

51
from within the function bubble() so as to make it relatively easy to modify
the comparison function without having to re-write portions related to the
actual algorithm. This results in bubble_2.c:
———– Program 10.2 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>

int arr[10] = { 3,6,1,2,3,8,4,1,7,2};

void bubble(int a[], int N);

int compare(int m, int n);

int main(void)
{
int i;
putchar('\n');
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
printf("%d ", arr[i]);
}
bubble(arr,10);
putchar('\n');

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{
printf("%d ", arr[i]);
}
return 0;
}

void bubble(int a[], int N)

{
int i, j, t;
for (i = N-1; i >= 0; i--)
{
for (j = 1; j <= i; j++)
{

52
 if (compare(a[j-1], a[j]))
{
t = a[j-1];
a[j-1] = a[j];
a[j] = t;
}
}
}
}

int compare(int m, int n)

{
return (m > n);
}
——— end program 10.2 ———————————–
If our goal is to make our sort routine data type independent, one way of
doing this is to use pointers to type void to point to the data instead of using
the integer data type. As a start in that direction let’s modify a few things
in the above so that pointers can be used. To begin with, we’ll stick with
pointers to type integer.
———– Program 10.3 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>

int arr[10] = { 3,6,1,2,3,8,4,1,7,2};

void bubble(int *p, int N);

int compare(int *m, int *n);

int main(void)
{
int i;
putchar('\n');

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{
printf("%d ", arr[i]);

53
 }
bubble(arr,10);
putchar('\n');

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{
printf("%d ", arr[i]);
}
return 0;
}

void bubble(int *p, int N)

{
int i, j, t;
for (i = N-1; i >= 0; i--)
{
for (j = 1; j <= i; j++)
{
if (compare(&p[j-1], &p[j]))
{
t = p[j-1];
p[j-1] = p[j];
p[j] = t;
}
}
}
}

int compare(int *m, int *n)

{
return (*m > *n);
}
——— end program 10.3 ———————————–
Note the changes. We are now passing a pointer to an integer (or array of
integers) to bubble(). And from within bubble we are passing pointers to the
elements of the array that we want to compare to our comparison function.
And, of course we are dereferencing these pointer in our compare() function

54
in order to make the actual comparison. Our next step will be to convert
the pointers in bubble() to pointers to type void so that that function will
become more type insensitive. This is shown in bubble_4.
———– Program 10.4 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>

int arr[10] = { 3,6,1,2,3,8,4,1,7,2};

void bubble(int *p, int N);

int compare(void *m, void *n);

int main(void)
{
int i;
putchar('\n');

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{
printf("%d ", arr[i]);
}
bubble(arr,10);
putchar('\n');

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{
printf("%d ", arr[i]);
}
return 0;
}

void bubble(int *p, int N)

{
int i, j, t;
for (i = N-1; i >= 0; i--)
{
for (j = 1; j <= i; j++)
{

55
 if (compare((void *)&p[j-1], (void *)&p[j]))
{
t = p[j-1];
p[j-1] = p[j];
p[j] = t;
}
}
}
}

int compare(void *m, void *n)

{
int *m1, *n1;
m1 = (int *)m;
n1 = (int *)n;
return (*m1 > *n1);
}
——— end program 10.4 ———————————–
Note that, in doing this, in compare() we had to introduce the casting of
the void pointer types passed to the actual type being sorted. But, as we’ll
see later that’s okay. And since what is being passed to bubble() is still a
pointer to an array of integers, we had to cast these pointers to void pointers
when we passed them as parameters in our call to compare().
We now address the problem of what we pass to bubble(). We want to make
the first parameter of that function a void pointer also. But, that means
that within bubble() we need to do something about the variable t, which is
currently an integer. Also, where we use t = p[j-1]; the type of p[j-1] needs
to be known in order to know how many bytes to copy to the variable t (or
whatever we replace t with).
Currently, in bubble_4.c, knowledge within bubble() as to the type of the
data being sorted (and hence the size of each individual element) is obtained
from the fact that the first parameter is a pointer to type integer. If we are
going to be able to use bubble() to sort any type of data, we need to make
that pointer a pointer to type void. But, in doing so we are going to lose
information concerning the size of individual elements within the array. So, in
bubble_5.c we will add a separate parameter to handle this size information.

56
These changes, from bubble4.c to bubble5.c are, perhaps, a bit more extensive
than those we have made in the past. So, compare the two modules carefully
for differences.
———– Program 10.5 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

long arr[10] = { 3,6,1,2,3,8,4,1,7,2};

void bubble(void *p, size_t width, int N);

int compare(void *m, void *n);

int main(void)
{
int i;
putchar('\n');

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{
printf("%ld ", arr[i]);
}
bubble(arr, sizeof(long), 10);
putchar('\n');

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{
printf("%ld ", arr[i]);
}

return 0;
}

void bubble(void *p, size_t width, int N)

{
int i, j;
unsigned char buf[4];
unsigned char *bp = p;

57
 for (i = N-1; i >= 0; i--)
{
for (j = 1; j <= i; j++)
{
if (compare((void *)(bp + width*(j-1)),
(void *)(bp + j*width))) /* 1 */
{
/* t = p[j-1]; */
memcpy(buf, bp + width*(j-1), width);
/* p[j-1] = p[j]; */
memcpy(bp + width*(j-1), bp + j*width , width);
/* p[j] = t; */
memcpy(bp + j*width, buf, width);
}
}
}
}

int compare(void *m, void *n)

{
long *m1, *n1;
m1 = (long *)m;
n1 = (long *)n;
return (*m1 > *n1);
}
——— end program 10.5 ———————————–
Note that I have changed the data type of the array from int to long to
illustrate the changes needed in the compare() function. Within bubble()
I’ve done away with the variable t (which we would have had to change from
type int to type long). I have added a buffer of size 4 unsigned characters,
which is the size needed to hold a long (this will change again in future
modifications to this code). The unsigned character pointer *bp is used to
point to the base of the array to be sorted, i.e. to the first element of that
array.
We also had to modify what we passed to compare(), and how we do the

58
swapping of elements that the comparison indicates need swapping. Use of
memcpy() and pointer notation instead of array notation work towards this
reduction in type sensitivity.
Again, making a careful comparison of bubble5.c with bubble4.c can result in
improved understanding of what is happening and why.
We move now to bubble6.c where we use the same function bubble() that
we used in bubble5.c to sort strings instead of long integers. Of course we
have to change the comparison function since the means by which strings are
compared is different from that by which long integers are compared. And,in
bubble6.c we have deleted the lines within bubble() that were commented
out in bubble5.c.
———– Program 10.6 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define MAX_BUF 256

char arr2[5][20] = { "Mickey Mouse",

"Donald Duck",

"Minnie Mouse",

"Goofy",

"Ted Jensen" };

void bubble(void *p, int width, int N);

int compare(void *m, void *n);

int main(void)
{
int i;
putchar('\n');

for (i = 0; i < 5; i++)

59
 {
printf("%s\n", arr2[i]);
}
bubble(arr2, 20, 5);
putchar('\n');
putchar('\n');

for (i = 0; i < 5; i++)

{
printf("%s\n", arr2[i]);
}
return 0;
}

void bubble(void *p, int width, int N)

{
int i, j, k;
unsigned char buf[MAX_BUF];
unsigned char *bp = p;

for (i = N-1; i >= 0; i--)

{
for (j = 1; j <= i; j++)
{
k = compare((void *)(bp + width*(j-1)), (void *)(bp + j*width));
if (k > 0)
{
memcpy(buf, bp + width*(j-1), width);
memcpy(bp + width*(j-1), bp + j*width , width);
memcpy(bp + j*width, buf, width);
}
}
}
}

int compare(void *m, void *n)

{
char *m1 = m;

60
 char *n1 = n;
return (strcmp(m1,n1));
}
——— end program 10.6 ———————————–
But, the fact that bubble() was unchanged from that used in bubble5.c
indicates that that function is capable of sorting a wide variety of data types.
What is left to do is to pass to bubble() the name of the comparison function
we want to use so that it can be truly universal. Just as the name of an array
is the address of the first element of the array in the data segment, the name
of a function decays into the address of that function in the code segment.
Thus we need to use a pointer to a function. In this case the comparison
function.
Pointers to functions must match the functions pointed to in the number and
types of the parameters and the type of the return value. In our case, we
declare our function pointer as:
int (*fptr)(const void *p1, const void *p2);
Note that were we to write:
int *fptr(const void *p1, const void *p2);
we would have a function prototype for a function which returned a pointer
to type int. That is because in C the parenthesis () operator have a higher
precedence than the pointer * operator. By putting the parenthesis around
the string (*fptr) we indicate that we are declaring a function pointer.
We now modify our declaration of bubble() by adding, as its 4th parameter,
a function pointer of the proper type. It’s function prototype becomes:
void bubble(void *p, int width, int N,
int(*fptr)(const void *, const void *));
When we call the bubble(), we insert the name of the comparison function
that we want to use. bubble7.c illustrate how this approach permits the use
of the same bubble() function for sorting different types of data.
———– Program 10.7 ———————————–
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

61
#define MAX_BUF 256

long arr[10] = { 3,6,1,2,3,8,4,1,7,2};

char arr2[5][20] = { "Mickey Mouse",
"Donald Duck",
"Minnie Mouse",
"Goofy",
"Ted Jensen" };

void bubble(void *p, int width, int N,

int(*fptr)(const void *, const void *));
int compare_string(const void *m, const void *n);
int compare_long(const void *m, const void *n);

int main(void)
{
int i;
puts("\nBefore Sorting:\n");

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) /* show the long ints */

{
printf("%ld ",arr[i]);
}
puts("\n");

for (i = 0; i < 5; i++) /* show the strings */

{
printf("%s\n", arr2[i]);
}
bubble(arr, 4, 10, compare_long); /* sort the longs */
bubble(arr2, 20, 5, compare_string); /* sort the strings */
puts("\n\nAfter Sorting:\n");

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) /* show the sorted longs */

{
printf("%ld ",arr[i]);
}

62
 puts("\n");

for (i = 0; i < 5; i++) /* show the sorted strings */

{
printf("%s\n", arr2[i]);
}
return 0;
}

void bubble(void *p, int width, int N,

int(*fptr)(const void *, const void *))
{
int i, j, k;
unsigned char buf[MAX_BUF];
unsigned char *bp = p;

for (i = N-1; i >= 0; i--)

{
for (j = 1; j <= i; j++)
{
k = fptr((void *)(bp + width*(j-1)), (void *)(bp + j*width));
if (k > 0)
{
memcpy(buf, bp + width*(j-1), width);
memcpy(bp + width*(j-1), bp + j*width , width);
memcpy(bp + j*width, buf, width);
}
}
}
}

int compare_string(const void *m, const void *n)

{
char *m1 = (char *)m;
char *n1 = (char *)n;
return (strcmp(m1,n1));
}

63
int compare_long(const void *m, const void *n)
{
long *m1, *n1;
m1 = (long *)m;
n1 = (long *)n;
return (*m1 > *n1);
}
——— end program 10.7 ———————————–
References for Chapter 10:
1. "Algorithms in C"
Robert Sedgewick
Addison-Wesley
ISBN 0-201-51425-7

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