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Pointers in C language is a variable that stores/points the address of another variable. A Pointer in C is used to allocate memory dynamically i.e. at run time. The pointer variable might be belonging to any of the data type such as int, float, char, double, short etc.
- Pointer Syntax : data_type *var_name; Example : int *p; char *p;
- Where, * is used to denote that “p” is pointer variable and not a normal variable.
Key points to remember about pointers in C:
- Normal variable stores the value whereas pointer variable stores the address of the variable.
- The content of the C pointer always be a whole number i.e. address.
- Always C pointer is initialized to null, i.e. int *p = null.
- The value of null pointer is 0.
- & symbol is used to get the address of the variable.
- * symbol is used to get the value of the variable that the pointer is pointing to.
- If a pointer in C is assigned to NULL, it means it is pointing to nothing.
- Two pointers can be subtracted to know how many elements are available between these two pointers.
- But, Pointer addition, multiplication, division are not allowed.
- The size of any pointer is 2 byte (for 16 bit compiler).
Example program for pointers in C:
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#include <stdio.h> int main() { int *ptr, q; q = 50; /* address of q is assigned to ptr */ ptr = &q; /* display q's value using ptr variable */ printf("%d", *ptr); return 0; } |
Pointers in C – program Output:
50
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