CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers
Mridul Sankar Barik
Jadavpur University
2023
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 1 / 24
Pointers - Introduction I
A pointer is a variable that holds a memory address of another
variable
int *p;
int i, j, a[10], b[20], *p, *q;
char *p;
float *q;
Type of a pointer variable defines the type of variables to which the
pointer will point
Pointer Operators
Unary address of operator (&): returns the memory address of its
operand
Unary indirection operator (*): returns the value stored at the address
specified by its operand
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 2 / 24
Pointers - Introduction II
On the right hand side of an assignment statement a pointer can be
used to assign its value to another pointer
int x=99;
int *p1, *p2;
p1=&x;
p2=p1;
printf("%p, %p %d %d\n", p1, p2, *p1, *p2);
Declaring a pointer type variable only allocates space for it
A pointer type variable must be initialized before used with an
indirection operator
int *p = &i; ⇒ *p is an alias of i ⇒ changing the value of *p
also changes the value of i and vice versa
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 3 / 24
Pointers - Introduction III
if p and q are pointer type variables, then
q=p; ⇒ value of the pointer type variable p is copied as the value of
another pointer type variable q; here, both the values are addresses
*q=*p; ⇒ value stored at the address pointed to by the pointer type
variable p is copied as the value to be stored at the address pointed to
by the pointer type variable q
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 4 / 24
Pointer as Arguments I
In C, we can achieve effects of
Call by Value: Any changes
Call by Reference, by using
made to the formal parameters
pointer type variables.
inside a function is not reflected
Although, C does not support
to the corresponding actual
Call by Reference in its true
parameters outside the function
semantics.
void swap(int a, int b){
void swap(int *a, int *b){
int t; t=a; a=b; b=t;
int t; t=*a; *a=*b; *b=t;
}
}
main(){
main(){
...
...
printf("%d %d\n", x, y);
printf("%d %d\n", x, y);
swap(x, y);
swap(&x, &y);
printf("%d %d\n", x, y);
printf("%d %d\n", x, y);
}
}
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 5 / 24
Pointers as Return Values I
int *max(int *a, int *b){
if(*a > *b)
return a;
else
return b;
}
int main(){
int *p, i=2, j=5;
p=max(&i, &j);
}
A function can return a pointer which is passed as an argument
A function could also return a pointer to an external variable or to a
local variable that’s been declared static
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 6 / 24
Pointers as Return Values II
int *f(void){
int i;
...
return &i;
}
Once f() returns memory location corresponding to local variable i is
de-allocated; some compilers issue warning messages
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 7 / 24
Pointer and Arrays I
int a[3] = {1, 2, 3}, *p;
p = a; p = &a[0];
printf("%p", &a[1]);
printf("%p", a+1);
printf("%d", a[1]);
printf("%d", *(a+1));
Name of an array is the address of the first element
Address of ith element is (a+i) or &a[i]
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 8 / 24
Pointer and Arrays II
int *p[3]; /*array of 3 pointers to int*/
int (*q)[3]; /*pointer to array of 3 int*/
int a[3]={1, 2, 3};
int *e;
q=a;/*produces warning: assignment from incompatible
pointer type*/
q=&a;
printf("a=%p &a=%p q=%p, *q=%p\n", a, &a, q, *q);
/*All four prints the same address*/
e=&a /*produces warning: assignment from incompatible
pointer type*/
e=a;
printf("e=%p, *e=%d\n", e, *e);
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 9 / 24
Pointer Conversion I
A void* pointer can be assigned to any other type of pointer or any
other pointer to a void* pointer
No explicit cast is required to convert to or from a void* pointer
Conversion from one type of pointer to another may create undefined
behaviour
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 10 / 24
Dynamic Memory Allocation I
Static memory allocation: storage is allocated by the compiler before
the program is run
To create new storage when the program is running use malloc ⇒
returns a pointer to the allocated memory, or NULL if the request fails
int *p = (int *) malloc(5*sizeof(int));
for(i=0;i<5;i++)
scanf("%d", (p+i));
for(i=0;i<5;i++)
printf("%d", *(p+i));
free(p);
free ⇒ deallocates memory
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 11 / 24
Dynamic Memory Allocation II
Creating 2D arrays dynamically
#define ROWS 5
#define COLS 8
int **b, i, j;
b=(int **)malloc(ROWS*sizeof(int *));
for(i=0; i<ROWS; i++){
*(b+i) = (int *) malloc(COLS*sizeof(int));
}
for(i=0; i<ROWS; i++){
for(j=0; j<COLS; j++){
*(*(b+i)+j)=0;
}
}
for(i=0; i<ROWS; i++){
for(j=0; j<COLS; j++){
printf("%d ", b[i][j]);
}
printf("\n");
}
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 12 / 24
Dynamic Memory Allocation III
Dynamic memory is allocated from Heap area which is accessible to
all the functions in program ⇒ You can allocate space dynamically
inside a function and return a pointer to it to the caller.
int **createMat(int r, int c){
int **b, i;
b=(int **)malloc(r*sizeof(int *));
for(i=0; i<r; i++)
*(b+i) = (int *) malloc(c*sizeof(int));
return(b);
}
...
int **x;
x=createMat(ROWS, COLS);
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 13 / 24
Dynamic Memory Allocation IV
Passing 2D array to a function
int printMat(int (*p)[3]){
int i, j;
for(i=0;i<3;i++){
for(j=0;j<3;j++)
printf("%d ", p[i][j]);
printf("\n");
}
}
...
int b[3][3]={{1,2,3},{4,5,6},{7,8,9}};
printMat(b);
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 14 / 24
Dynamic Memory Allocation V
calloc() allocates memory for an array of n elements of b bytes
each and returns a pointer to the allocated memory, additionally, the
memory is set to zero.
int *p = (int *) calloc(5, sizeof(int));
for(int i=0; i<5; i++)
printf("%d ", *(p+i)); //five 0's printed
realloc() function changes the size of the memory block pointed to
by p to b bytes. The contents will be unchanged in the range from
the start of the region up to the minimum of the old and new sizes.
p=realloc(p, 10*sizeof(int));
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 15 / 24
Pointer Arithmetic I
C supports three forms of pointer arithmetic
Adding an integer to a pointer
Subtracting an integer from a pointer
Subtracting one pointer from another
Adding an integer j to a pointer p yields a pointer to the clement j
places after the one that p points to
If p points to the array element a[i], then p+j points to a[i+j]
(provided, a[i+j] exists)
If p points to the array element a[i], then p-j points to a[i-j]
(provided, a[i-j] exists)
If p points to the array element a[i] and q points to the array
element a[j], then p-q is equal to i-j
Performing arithmetic on a pointer that doesn’t point to an array
element causes undefined behavior
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 16 / 24
Pointer Arithmetic II
The effect of subtracting one pointer from another is undefined unless
both point to elements of the same array
Pointers can be compared using relational operators (<, <=, >, >=)
and the equality operator (==, ! =)
int a[10], *p, *q, i;
p=&a[2];
q=&a[4];
printf("%d %d", *(p+2), *q);
printf("%d", p-q);
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 17 / 24
Pointers and Multidimensional Array I
Consider two dimensional array
int a[ROWS][COLS];
int row, col;
for(row = O; row < ROWS; row++)
for(col = 0; col < COLS; col++)
a[row][col]=0;
The same action can be achieved using pointer
int *p;
for(p = &a[0][0]; p<=&a[ROWS-1][COLS-1]; p++ )
*p = 0;
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 18 / 24
Pointers and Multidimensional Array II
To set the elements to zero in ith row of a two-dimensional array
int a[ROWS][COLS], *p, i;
...
for(p = a[i]; p < a[i] + COLS; p++)
*p = 0;
Two statements p = &a[i][0] and p = a[i]; are equivalent
For any array a, the expression a[i] is equivalent to *(a+i)
Thus, &a[i][0] is same as &(*(a[i]+0)) or &*a[i] or a[i]
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 19 / 24
Pointers and Multidimensional Array III
To set the elements in column i of a two-dimensional array to zero
int a[ROWS][COLS], (*p)[COLS], i;
for(p = &a[O]; p < &a[ROWS]; p++)
(*p)[i] = 0;
Here, p is declared as a pointer to an array of length COLS whose
elements are integers
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 20 / 24
Function Pointers I
Function Pointers are pointers, i.e. variables, which contain addresses
of functions
/*function returning int and taking one int argument*/
int func(int a);
/* function returning pointer to int
and taking one int argument*/
int *func(int a);
/* pointer to function returning int
and taking one int argument*/
int (*func)(int a);
Assign the address of the right sort of function just by using its name
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 21 / 24
Function Pointers II
Like an array, a function name is turned into an address when it’s
used in an expression
You can call the function using one of two forms
(*func)(1);
/* or */
func(1);
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 22 / 24
Function Pointers III
Example
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
void func(int);
main(){
void (*fp)(int);
fp = func;
(*fp)(1);
fp(2);
}
void func(int arg){
printf("%d\n", arg);
}
Mridul Sankar Barik (Jadavpur University) CPNM Lecture 11 - Pointers 2023 23 / 24
Function Pointers IV
Array of pointers to functions
void f1(int, float);
void f2(int, float);
void f3(int, float);
void (*fparr[3])(int, float) = { f1, f2, f3 };
/* then call one */
fparr[2](1, 3.4);
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