Data types in C
Arrays in C
Pointers in C

Pointer Dereferencing
The & Operator
NULL
Uninitialized Pointers
Using Pointers
C Strings
String Code Example
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Char type pointers
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Pointers

A pointer is a value which represents a reference to another value sometimes known as

the pointer's "pointee". Hopefully you have learned about pointers somewhere else, since

the preceding sentence is probably inadequate explanation. This discussion will

concentrate on the syntax of pointers in C -- for a much more complete discussion of

pointers and their use see http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/102/, Pointers and Memory.

Syntax

Syntactically C uses the asterisk or "star" (*) to indicate a pointer. C defines pointer types

based on the type pointee. A char* is type of pointer which refers to a single char. a

struct fraction* is type of pointer which refers to a struct fraction.

int* intPtr;   // declare an integer pointer variable intPtr

char* charPtr; // declares a character pointer --

// a very common type of pointer

// Declare two struct fraction pointers

// (when declaring multiple variables on one line, the *

//  should go on the right with the variable)

struct fraction *f1, *f2;

The Floating "*"

In the syntax, the star is allowed to be anywhere between the base type and the variable

name. Programmer's have their own conventions-- I generally stick the * on the left with

the type. So the above declaration of intPtr could be written equivalently...

int  *intPtr;        // these are all the same int * intPtr;

int*  intPtr;

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