Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 30 views

    Unit III Pointers & Structures

    Uploaded by

    Indhunesan Packirisamy
    Pointer is a variable that contains the address of another variable. A pointer variable stores the memory address of the variable it points to. Pointers allow passing arguments by reference in functions, where any changes made to the pointer variable are reflected in the original variable. Pointers can also be used to access elements of an array using pointer arithmetic or to dynamically allocate memory on the heap.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Unit III Pointers & Structures

    Uploaded by

    Indhunesan Packirisamy
    30 views81 pages
    Pointer is a variable that contains the address of another variable. A pointer variable stores the memory address of the variable it points to. Pointers allow passing arguments by reference in functions, where any changes made to the pointer variable are reflected in the original variable. Pointers can also be used to access elements of an array using pointer arithmetic or to dynamically allocate memory on the heap.

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Pointer is a variable that contains the address of another variable. A pointer variable stores the memory address of the variable it points to. Pointers allow passing arguments by reference in functions, where any changes made to the pointer variable are reflected in the original variable. Pointers can also be used to access elements of an array using pointer arithmetic or to dynamically allocate memory on the heap.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    30 views81 pages

    Unit III Pointers & Structures

    Uploaded by

    Indhunesan Packirisamy
    Pointer is a variable that contains the address of another variable. A pointer variable stores the memory address of the variable it points to. Pointers allow passing arguments by reference in functions, where any changes made to the pointer variable are reflected in the original variable. Pointers can also be used to access elements of an array using pointer arithmetic or to dynamically allocate memory on the heap.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 81

    Pointers and Address

    POINTER DEFINITION
    ✓ A pointer is a variable that contains the address of a variable.
    int xyz = 50;
    Assign the address of xyz to a variable p
    p is the pointer variable to xyz
    p = &xyz;
    POINTER AND ADDRESS

    A pointer is a group of cells (often two or four) that can hold an address.
    p = &c;
    c is a char
    p is a pointer that points to char c
    Represent by,

    assigns the address of c to the variable p, and p is said to "point to" c


    Pointer Declaration
    ✓ Address of operator:&
    Gets address of a variable
    ✓ De-referencing operator:*
    Accesses the memory location this pointer holds address of

    How to declare a pointer and how to use & and *:


    int x = 1, y = 2, z[10];
    int *ip; /* ip is a pointer to int */
    ip = &x; /* ip now points to x */
    y = *ip; /* y is now 1 */
    *ip = 0; /* x is now 0 */
    ip = &z[0]; /* ip now points to z[0] */

    If ip points to the integer x, then *ip can occur in any context where x could,
    so *ip = *ip + 10; increments *ip by 10.
    The unary operators * and & bind more tightly than arithmetic operators, so
    the assignment y = *ip + 1 takes whatever ip points at, adds 1, and assigns the
    result to y.
    Pointers and Function Arguments
    • As an argument, a pointer is passed instead of a variable and its address is
    passed instead of its value.
    • As a result, any change made by the function using the pointer is permanently
    stored at the address of the passed variable. In C, this is referred to as call by
    reference.
    • The calling program to pass pointers to the values to be changed:

    swap(&a, &b);

    Since the operator & produces the address of a variable, &a is a pointer to a.
    In swap itself, the parameters are declared as pointers, and the operands are
    accessed indirectly through them.

    Example:
    void swap(int *px, int *py) /* interchange *px and *py */
    {
    int temp;
    temp = *px;
    *px = *py;
    *py = temp;
    }
    POINTER AND FUNCTION
    ARGUMENTS
    POINTERS AND ARRAYS
    ✓ Any operation that can be achieved by array subscripting can also be done
    with pointers.
    ✓ The pointer version will in general be faster but, at least to the uninitiated,
    somewhat harder to understand.
    The declaration,
    int a[10];
    defines an array of size 10, that is, a block of 10 consecutive objects named a[0],
    a[1], ...,a[9].

    ✓ The notation a[i] refers to the i-th element of the array.


    ✓ If pa is a pointer to an integer, declared as int *pa; then the assignment
    pa = &a[0];
    sets pa to point to element zero of a; that is, pa contains the address of a[0].
    Pointers and Arrays
    Pointer Arrays / Initialization of
    Pointer Arrays
    (Array of Pointers)
    Address Arithmetic
    Pointer to Pointer
    Pointers to functions
    • In C, just like any other data type, you can have
    pointers that point to functions.
    • This feature allows for dynamic invocation of
    functions and can be particularly useful in
    scenarios where you want to select or change
    which function to call during runtime.
    Character Pointers and functions
    • Character pointers are commonly used to handle
    strings and manipulate characters within a
    program.
    • They can be passed to functions to perform
    operations on strings or individual characters.
    Multi-dimensional array and
    Row/column major formats
    Command line arguments
    Basic Structures
    Structures and Functions
    Array of structures
    Pointer of structures
    Self-referral structures
    typedef
    unions
    in

    in
    Bit-fields
    • In C, we can specify the size (in bits) of the structure and
    union members.
    • The idea of bit-field is to use memory efficiently when we
    know that the value of a field or group of fields will never
    exceed a limit or is within a small range.
    • C Bit fields are used when the storage of our program is
    limited.
    Need of Bit Fields in C
    • Reduces memory consumption.
    • To make our program more efficient and flexible.
    • Easy to Implement.

    You might also like