Pointers are the heart of C programming. It is the most distinct feature of C, which provides power and flexibility to C. Pointers separates C from other programming languages.
C programmers make extensive use of pointers, because of their numerous benefits. Below are some advantages of pointers.
- Pointers are more efficient in handling arrays and structures.
- Pointers are used to return multiple values from a function.
- We use pointers to get reference of a variable or function.
- Pointer allows dynamic memory allocation (creation of variables at runtime) in C. Which undoubtedly is the biggest advantage of pointers.
- Pointers increases execution speed of program.
Pointers are closely related to low level memory operations. Hence, let us first understand memory in contrast to C programming.
Understanding memory
Computer memory (RAM) is a collection of contiguous block of bytes. Where individual block is called as cell (memory cell). Each cell has a unique numeric address (also known as physical memory address) associated with it. These addresses starts from zero and runs up to maximum memory size (in bytes).
For example, memory location of a 64KB RAM starts from 0 and ends to 65536 (or 0x10000) bytes.
Before I formally introduce pointers let us first see what happens during a variable definition.
Consider the statement int num = 10;
- For the above statement, the C compiler allocates memory capable to store an integer. Let say memory is allocated at address 0x1200.
- After memory allocation, the C compiler defines a label (variable name) to access the memory location. The label is mapped to the allocated memory.
- Finally, the constant 10 is stored at 0x1200. Whenever you refer num inside your program, internally C refers to the memory location of num.
What is a pointer?
A pointer is a variable that stores memory address. If it is a variable, it must have a valid C data type. Yes, every pointer variable has a data type associated with it. Which means an integer pointer can hold only integer variable addresses.
Note: We never say pointer stores or holds a memory location. Instead, we say pointer points to a memory location. So from now always use the language pointer points to a memory location.
Reference operator &
Because we are dealing with memory addresses, we must know how to get memory address of a variable. We use unary & (reference of) operator to get memory address of a variable. Reference operator is also known as address of operator.
Read more about operators in C programming.
Syntax to use reference of operator
&variable-name;Example program to use reference operator
/**
* C program to get memory address of a variable
*/
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int num = 10;
printf("Value of num = %d\n", num);
/* &num gets the address of num. */
printf("Address of num = %d\n", &num);
printf("Address of num in hexadecimal = %x", &num);
return 0;
}Output
Value of num = 10
Address of num = 6356748
Address of num in hexadecimal = 60ff0c
Note: Output of above program may vary on your machine.
Dereference operator *
Once you have a memory address, you must be willing to get value stored at that memory address, for that we need to dereference the memory address.
Dereferencing is the process of retrieving value at memory location pointed by a pointer. We use unary * dereference operator to get value pointed by a memory address. Dereference operator is also known as indirection operator.
Syntax to use dereference operator
*memory-address-or-pointer-variable;Example program to use dereference operator
/**
* C program to use dereference operator
*/
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int num = 10;
printf("Value of num = %d\n", num);
/* &num gets the address of num. */
printf("Address of num = %d\n", &num);
/*
* &num gets the address of num
* and (*(&num)) gets value pointed by (&num)
*/
printf("Value of num = %d\n", *(&num));
return 0;
}How to declare pointer variable
Once you got basics of memory addresses, reference and dereference operator. Let us declare our first pointer variable.
Pointer variable declaration follows almost similar syntax as of normal variable.
Syntax to declare pointer variable
data-type * pointer-variable-name;data-typeis a valid C data type.*symbol specifies it is a pointer variable. You must prefix*before variable name to declare it as a pointer.pointer-variable-nameis a valid C identifier i.e. the name of pointer variable.
Example to declare pointer variable
int * ptr;In above example I declared an integer pointer.
How to initialize pointer variable
There are two ways to initialize a pointer variable. You can use reference operator & to get memory location of a variable or you can also directly assign one pointer variable to other pointer variable.
Examples to initialize pointer variable
int num = 10;
int *ptr = # // Assign address of num to ptr
// You can also assign a pointer variable to another
int *ptr1 = ptr; // Initialize pointer using another pointerHow pointers are stored in memory
You got a basic picture of pointer working. Let us take a closer look on how pointer variables are stored in memory. Consider the following statements
int num = 10;
int *ptr = #Below is memory representation of above two statements.
Example program to use pointers
Write a C program to demonstrate the use of pointers in C programming.
/**
* C program to demonstrate use of pointers
*/
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int num = 1;
int *ptr = # // ptr points to num
printf("Value of num = %d \n", num);
printf("Address of num = %x \n\n", &num);
printf("Value of ptr = %x \n", ptr);
printf("Address of ptr = %x \n", &ptr);
printf("Value pointed by ptr = %d \n\n", *ptr);
/* Change the value of num directly */
num = 10;
printf("After changing value of num directly. \n");
printf("Value of num = %d \n", num);
printf("Value pointed by ptr = %d \n\n", *ptr);
/* Assigns 100 at the address pointed by ptr */
*ptr = 100;
printf("After changing value pointed by ptr. \n");
printf("Value of num = %d \n", num);
printf("Value pointed by ptr = %d \n", *ptr);
return 0;
}Note:
%xformat specifier is used to print hexadecimal representation of a decimal.
Output –
Value of num = 1
Address of num = 60ff0c
Value of ptr = 60ff0c
Address of ptr = 60ff08
Value pointed by ptr = 1
After changing value of num directly.
Value of num = 10
Value pointed by ptr = 10
After changing value pointed by ptr.
Value of num = 100
Value pointed by ptr = 100Note: Output of above program may differ on your system.
Working of above program
int *ptr = #declares an integer pointer that points atnum.- The first two
printf()in line 12 and 13 are straightforward. First prints value of num and other prints memory address of num. printf("Value of ptr = %x \n", ptr);prints the value stored at ptr i.e. memory address of num. Hence, the statement prints memory address of num.printf("Address of ptr = %x \n", &ptr);prints the address of ptr.Don’t confuse with address of ptr and address pointed by ptr. First ptr is a variable so it will have a memory address which is retrieved using
&ptr. And since it is a pointer variable hence it stores memory address which is retrieved usingptr.printf("Value pointed by ptr = %d \n\n", *ptr);, here*dereferences value pointed by ptr and prints the value at memory location pointed by ptr.- Next, we made some changes to num i.e.
num=10. After changesprintf("Value of num = %d \n", num);prints 10. - Since we made changes to our original variable num, hence changes are reflected back to pointer that points to the num.
*ptrin line 23, dereferences value pointed by ptr i.e. 10. *ptr = 100;says assign 100 to memory location pointed by ptr. Which means, assign 100 to num indirectly.- Since, we again modified the value of num using
*ptr = 100. Hence, num and *ptr in line 28 and 29 will evaluate to 100.