Tutorial

This is the third part of the tutorial on Pointers in C. Please read Part 1 and Part 2 before continuing this tutorial.

Compiled from multiple sources on the internet. Note that address values will change depending on the programming platform and operating system

C - Pointers Continued

C - Pointer Arithmetic

A pointer in c is an address, which is a numeric value. Therefore, you can perform arithmetic operations on a pointer just as you can on a numeric value. There are four arithmetic operators that can be used on pointers: ++, --, +, and -

To understand pointer arithmetic, let us consider that ptr is an integer pointer which points to the address 1000. Assuming 32-bit integers, let us perform the following arithmetic operation on the pointer

ptr++

After the above operation, the ptr will point to the location 1004 because each time ptr is incremented, it will point to the next integer location which is 4 bytes next to the current location. This operation will move the pointer to the next memory location without impacting the actual value at the memory location. If ptr points to a character whose address is 1000, then the above operation will point to the location 1001 because the next character will be available at 1001.

Incrementing a Pointer

We prefer using a pointer in our program instead of an array because the variable pointer can be incremented, unlike the array name which cannot be incremented because it is a constant pointer. The following program increments the variable pointer to access each succeeding element of the array

#include <stdio.h>

const int MAX = 3;

int main () {

   int  var[] = {10, 100, 200};
   int  i, *ptr;

   /* let us have array address in pointer */
   ptr = var;

   for ( i = 0; i < MAX; i++) {

      printf("Address of var[%d] = %x\n", i, ptr );
      printf("Value of var[%d] = %d\n", i, *ptr );

      /* move to the next location */
      ptr++;
   }

   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Address of var[0] = bf882b30
Value of var[0] = 10
Address of var[1] = bf882b34
Value of var[1] = 100
Address of var[2] = bf882b38
Value of var[2] = 200

Decrementing a Pointer

The same considerations apply to decrementing a pointer, which decreases its value by the number of bytes of its data type as shown below

#include <stdio.h>

const int MAX = 3;

int main () {

   int  var[] = {10, 100, 200};
   int  i, *ptr;

   /* let us have array address in pointer */
   ptr = &var[MAX-1];

   for ( i = MAX; i > 0; i--) {

      printf("Address of var[%d] = %x\n", i-1, ptr );
      printf("Value of var[%d] = %d\n", i-1, *ptr );

      /* move to the previous location */
      ptr--;
   }

   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Address of var[2] = bfedbcd8
Value of var[2] = 200
Address of var[1] = bfedbcd4
Value of var[1] = 100
Address of var[0] = bfedbcd0
Value of var[0] = 10

Pointer Comparisons

Pointers may be compared by using relational operators, such as ==, <, and >. If p1 and p2 point to variables that are related to each other, such as elements of the same array, then p1 and p2 can be meaningfully compared.

The following program modifies the previous example − one by incrementing the variable pointer so long as the address to which it points is either less than or equal to the address of the last element of the array, which is &var[MAX-1]

#include <stdio.h>

const int MAX = 3;

int main () {

   int  var[] = {10, 100, 200};
   int  i, *ptr;

   /* let us have address of the first element in pointer */
   ptr = var;
   i = 0;

   while ( ptr <= &var[MAX - 1] ) {

      printf("Address of var[%d] = %x\n", i, ptr );
      printf("Value of var[%d] = %d\n", i, *ptr );

      /* point to the next location */
      ptr++;
      i++;
   }

   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Address of var[0] = bfdbcb20
Value of var[0] = 10
Address of var[1] = bfdbcb24
Value of var[1] = 100
Address of var[2] = bfdbcb28
Value of var[2] = 200

C-Array of Pointers

Before we go into the concept of arrays of pointers, let us consider the following example, which uses an array of 3 integers

#include <stdio.h>

const int MAX = 3;

int main () {

   int  var[] = {10, 100, 200};
   int i;

   for (i = 0; i < MAX; i++) {
      printf("Value of var[%d] = %d\n", i, var[i] );
   }

   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Value of var[0] = 10
Value of var[1] = 100
Value of var[2] = 200

There may be a situation when we want to maintain an array, which can store pointers to an int or char or any other data type available. Following is the declaration of an array of pointers to an integer −

int *ptr[MAX];

It declares ptr as an array of MAX integer pointers. Thus, each element in ptr, holds a pointer to an int value. The following example uses three integers, which are stored in an array of pointers, as follows:

#include <stdio.h>

const int MAX = 3;

int main () {

   int  var[] = {10, 100, 200};
   int i, *ptr[MAX];

   for ( i = 0; i < MAX; i++) {
      ptr[i] = &var[i]; /* assign the address of integer. */
   }

   for ( i = 0; i < MAX; i++) {
      printf("Value of var[%d] = %d\n", i, *ptr[i] );
   }

   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

Value of var[0] = 10
Value of var[1] = 100
Value of var[2] = 200

You can also use an array of pointers to character to store a list of strings as follows:

#include <stdio.h>

const int MAX = 4;

int main () {

   char *names[] = {
      "Zara Ali",
      "Hina Ali",
      "Nuha Ali",
      "Sara Ali"
   };

   int i = 0;

   for ( i = 0; i < MAX; i++) {
      printf("Value of names[%d] = %s\n", i, names[i] );
   }

   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Value of names[0] = Zara Ali
Value of names[1] = Hina Ali
Value of names[2] = Nuha Ali
Value of names[3] = Sara Ali

C- Pointer to Pointer

A pointer to a pointer is a form of multiple indirection, or a chain of pointers. Normally, a pointer contains the address of a variable. When we define a pointer to a pointer, the first pointer contains the address of the second pointer, which points to the location that contains the actual value as shown below.

A variable that is a pointer to a pointer must be declared as such. This is done by placing an additional asterisk in front of its name. For example, the following declaration declares a pointer to a pointer of type int

int **var;

When a target value is indirectly pointed to by a pointer to a pointer, accessing that value requires that the asterisk operator be applied twice, as is shown below in the example.

#include <stdio.h>

int main () {

   int  var;
   int  *ptr;
   int  **pptr;

   var = 3000;

   /* take the address of var */
   ptr = &var;

   /* take the address of ptr using address of operator & */
   pptr = &ptr;

   /* take the value using pptr */
   printf("Value of var = %d\n", var );
   printf("Value available at *ptr = %d\n", *ptr );
   printf("Value available at **pptr = %d\n", **pptr);

   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Value of var = 3000
Value available at *ptr = 3000
Value available at **pptr = 3000

Passing pointers to functions in C

C programming allows passing a pointer to a function. To do so, simply declare the function parameter as a pointer type.

Following is a simple example where we pass an unsigned long pointer to a function and change the value inside the function which reflects back in the calling function

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

void getSeconds(unsigned long *par);

int main () {

   unsigned long sec;
   getSeconds( &sec );

   /* print the actual value */
   printf("Number of seconds: %ld\n", sec );

   return 0;
}

void getSeconds(unsigned long *par) {
   /* get the current number of seconds */
   *par = time( NULL );
   return;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Number of seconds :1294450468

The function, which can accept a pointer, can also accept an array as shown in the following example

Return pointer from functions in C

We have seen in the last chapter how C programming allows to return an array from a function. Similarly, C also allows to return a pointer from a function. To do so, you would have to declare a function returning a pointer as in the following example −

int * myFunction() {
   .
   .
   .
}

Second point to remember is that, it is not a good idea to return the address of a local variable outside the function, so you would have to define the local variable as static variable.

Now, consider the following function which will generate 10 random numbers and return them using an array name which represents a pointer, i.e., address of first array element.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

/* function to generate and return random numbers. */
int * getRandom( ) {

   static int  r[10];
   int i;

   /* set the seed */
   srand( (unsigned)time( NULL ) );

   for ( i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
      r[i] = rand();
      printf("%d\n", r[i] );
   }

   return r;
}

/* main function to call above defined function */
int main () {

   /* a pointer to an int */
   int *p;
   int i;

   p = getRandom();

   for ( i = 0; i < 10; i++ ) {
      printf("*(p + [%d]) : %d\n", i, *(p + i) );
   }

   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled together and executed, it produces the following result −

1523198053
1187214107
1108300978
430494959
1421301276
930971084
123250484
106932140
1604461820
149169022
*(p + [0]) : 1523198053
*(p + [1]) : 1187214107
*(p + [2]) : 1108300978
*(p + [3]) : 430494959
*(p + [4]) : 1421301276
*(p + [5]) : 930971084
*(p + [6]) : 123250484
*(p + [7]) : 106932140
*(p + [8]) : 1604461820
*(p + [9]) : 149169022