COMPUTER
PROGRAMMING
Pointers and Strings
Topics to be covered
Reading, writing and manipulating Strings,
Understanding computer memory, accessing via
pointers, pointers to arrays, dynamic
allocation, drawback of pointers.
String definition
• String is a 1-d array of characters terminated
by a null (‘\0’ )
• char C[] = {'A','B','C','\0'};
• char S[] = "ABC";
• Both C and S have length = 3
• You can also have NULL instead of ‘\0’ defined
in stdio.h and string.h
String input including blanks
main(){
char name[25] ;
printf ( "Enter name: " ) ;
scanf ( "%s", name ) ;
printf("hello %s",name);
}
Another way
main(){
char C[20];
gets(C); // accepts blank spaces
puts(C);
}
NULL and strlen()
main(){
int i=0;
char C[10];
gets(C);
while(C[i]!=NULL) printf("%c",C[i++]);
//OR while(i<strlen(C)) printf("%c",C[i++]);
}
Few Inbuilt functions
main( ) {
char A[] = "wxYZ", B[]="78",C[20];
printf("length of %s = %d",A,strlen(A));
if(strcmp(A,B)==0) printf("\nA,B same srings");
printf("\nC = %s",strcpy(C,A));
printf("\nUppercase of A = %s",strupr(A));
printf("\nConcat A+C = %s",strcat(C,A));
printf("\n Reverse A = %s",strrev(A));
}
2-d character array
char Names[6][10] = {"akshay",
"parag",
"raman"};
puts(Names[0]); //akshay
char Names[6][10] storage
• Reading, writing and
manipulating Strings,
Understanding computer
memory, accessing via pointers,
pointers to arrays, dynamic
allocation, drawback of
pointers.
Variables vs. pointers
Advantages of pointers
• Dynamic memory allocation
• System level programming
• To modify a variable in another function
• Illusion of multiple returns
• Passing and returning arrays
Variable, value and location
& - address of operator
main( ){
int i = 3 ;
printf ( "\nAddress of i = %u", &i ) ;
printf ( "\nValue of i = %d", i ) ;
}
//%u means unsigned integer, what is %p,%i,%e
* is value at address
main( ) {
int i = 3 ;
printf ( "\nAddress of i = %u", &i ) ;
printf ( "\nValue of i = %d", i ) ;
printf ( "\nValue of i = %d", *( &i ) ) ;
}
// output: some address, 3 and 3
int *j ;
• This declaration tells the compiler that j will be
used to store the address of an integer value.
Problem 1
main( ) {
int i = 3 ,*j ;
j = &i ;
printf ( "\nAddr of i = %u", &i ) ;
printf ( "\nAddr of i = %u", j ) ;
printf ( "\nAddr of j = %u", &j ) ;
printf ( "\n j = %u", j ) ; printf ( "\n i = %d", i ) ;
printf ( "\n i = %d", *( &i ) ) ; printf ( "\n i = %d", *j ) ;
}
Answer
Addr of i = 65524
Addr of i = 65524
Addr of j = 65522
j = 65524
i=3
i=3
Value of i = 3
Pointers for other datatypes
• int *alpha ;
• char *ch ;
• float *s ;
Pointers are variables that contain addresses,
and since addresses are whole numbers,
pointers would always contain whole
numbers.
char *ch ;
• *ch will contain a character
• ch is an unsigned int containing the address
main(){
inti=3,*j,**k;
Problem 2
j=&i; k=&j;
printf("\naddr of i=%u",&i);
printf("\naddr of i=%u",j);
printf("\naddr of i=%u",*k);
printf("\naddr of j=%u",&j);
printf("\naddr of j=%u",k);
printf("\naddr of k=%u",&k);
printf("\nj=%u",j); printf("\nk=%u",k);
printf("\ni=%d",i); printf("\ni=%d",*(&i));
printf("\ni=%d",*j); printf("\ni=%d",**k);
}
Situation
Answer
addr of i=6487628
addr of i=6487628
addr of i=6487628
addr of j=6487616
addr of j=6487616
addr of k=6487608
j=6487628
k=6487616
i=3
i=3
i=3
i=3
Problem 3
main() {
int Var = 10;
int *ptr = &Var;
printf("Var = %d\n", *ptr);
printf("Var Addr = %u\n", ptr);
*ptr = 20;
printf("Var = %d\n", Var);
}
Answer
Var = 10
Var Addr = 6487620
Var = 20
Problem 4
main() {
int v[3] = {10, 100, 200},i;
int *ptr;
ptr = v;
for(i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
printf("*ptr = %d\n", *ptr);
printf("ptr = %u\n", ptr);
ptr++;
}
}
Answer
*ptr = 10
ptr = 6487600
*ptr = 100
ptr = 6487604
*ptr = 200
ptr = 6487608
Problem 5
main( ) {
int i=3,*x; float j=1.5,*y; char k='c',*z ;
printf("\n i=%d, j=%f, k=%c",i,j,k) ;
x = &i ; y = &j ; z = &k ;
printf("\n Addr of x,y,z = %u, %u, %u",x,y,z);
x++; y++; z++;
printf("\n New Addr of x,y,z = %u, %u, %u",x,y,z);
}
Answer
• i=3, j=1.500000, k=c
• Addr of x,y,z = 6487604, 6487600, 6487599
• New Addr of x,y,z = 6487608, 6487604,
6487600
Problem 6
main( ) {
int arr[] = { 10, 20, 30, 45, 67, 56, 74 };
int *i, *j;
i = &arr[1]; j = &arr[5];
printf("%d %d", j-i, *j-*i);
}
Answer
• 4 36
Problem 7
main(){
int arr[]={10,20,36,72,45,36};
int*j,*k;
j=&arr[4];
k=(arr+4);
if(j==k)
printf("Same locations");
else printf("Different locations");
}
Answer
• Same locations
Problem 8
main(){
int a = 10, b = 20 ;
swapv ( a, b ) ;
printf ( "\na = %d b = %d", a, b ) ;
}
swapv ( int x, int y ) {
int t = x ;
x=y;y=t;
printf ( "\nx = %d y = %d", x, y ) ;
}
Answer
x = 20 y = 10
a = 10 b = 20
Problem 9: Pointer swap
main( ) {
int a = 10, b = 20 ;
swapr ( &a, &b ) ;
printf ( "\na = %d, b = %d", a, b ) ;
}
swapr( int *x, int *y ) {
int t = *x ; *x = *y ; *y = t ;
}
Problem 10: One * for 1-d
main( ) {
int a[3]={1,2,3},*b,i;
b=a;
for(i=0;i<3;i++) {
printf("\n %d %d",a[i],b[i]);
}}
Output
• 11
• 22
• 33
Problem 11: Multiple returns
AreaPeri(int r, float *A, float *P){
*A = 3.14*r*r; *P = 2*3.14*r;
}
main( ){
int r; float A,P;
printf("\nEnter radius: " ); scanf("%d",&r);
AreaPeri(r,&A,&P); printf("Area = %f, Peri = %f",A,P);
}
Same things
• name[i]
• *( name + i )
• *( i + name )
• i[name]
Problem 12: Array vs *
main( ){
char A[] = "Hello", B[10] ;
char *C = "Good Morning", *D;
//B = A ; /* error */
D = C ; /* Okay */
printf("%s",D);
} // cannot assign array to array, but can assign
pointer to pointer
Problem 13: * are dynamic
main( ) {
char A[] = "Hello" ;
char *B = "Hello" ;
//A = "Bye" ; /* error */
B = "Bye" ; /* works */
printf("%s",B);
}
Problem 14: Returning an array
int *incr(int X[3],int k){
int i;
for(i=0;i<k;i++) ++X[i];
return X;
}
main(){
int A[] = {1,2,3},n=3,i,*B;
B = incr(A,n);
for(i=0;i<n;i++) printf(" %d",B[i]);
}
Output
• 234
Array of pointers
• char*names[]={"akshay","parag","raman","sri
nivas", "gopal","rajesh"};
• It contains base address of various names
Array of pointers
Problem 15: Dynamic allocation
main(){
int *ptr, n,i;
printf("Size of array? "); scanf("%d",&n);
ptr = (int*)malloc(n*sizeof(int));
for(i=0;i<n;i++) ptr[i]=i;
for(i=0;i<n;i++) printf(" %d",ptr[i]);
free (ptr);
}
Output
Size of array? 10
0123456789
Drawback of pointers
• Complicated to use and debug
• Uninitialized pointers might cause
segmentation fault
• Dynamically allocated block needs to be freed
explicitly. Otherwise, it would lead to memory
leak (occupied but unused memory)
• If pointers are updated with incorrect values,
it might lead to memory corruption
Topics covered were
Reading, writing and manipulating Strings,
Understanding computer memory, accessing
via pointers, pointers to arrays, dynamic
allocation, drawback of pointers.
