Department of Computer and Information Science,

School of Science, IUPUI

CSCI 230

Pointers
Introduction
Dale Roberts, Lecturer
Computer Science, IUPUI
E-mail: droberts@cs.iupui.edu

Dale Roberts

What is Pointer
CS Dept.

Location A:
Highway
Intersection

Location C:
Crabapple
Tree

Find next
message
on the top of
traffic light
on Michigan
St. and
West St.

Phone rings
and says
Deliver
ransom to
I-65 and
West St.
intersection

Location B:
Traffic Light

CS

Find
Instruction
Under
The crabapple
tree next to old
law school

Bring your
money to
IUPUI SL-280
to exchange
hostage

Location D:
IUPUI SL-280

Hostage

A pointer is an address.
Address of next
location

Dale Roberts

What is Pointer
Example: Find out who is with Woodstock
Pig Pen

Sally

Lucy

Lucy knows
Sally knows

among peanut gang?

Charlie

Linus

Woodstock

Snoopy
Linus knows Charlie knows Snoopy knows Woodstock is with Snoopy

Pig Pen points to Lucy; Lucy points to Sally; Sally points to Linus;
Linus points to Charlie; Charlie points to Snoopy;
Snoopy has Woodstock

An instance uses a
pointer to link to a next
Linus
instance making a
chain.
Dale Roberts

Charlie

Snoopy

Pointer declarations:
datatype snoopy, *charlie, **linus;
snoopy =
; /* snoopys content is Woodstock */
charlie = &snoopy;
/* charlies content is the info (pointer) to locate snoopy, which is snoopys address*/

linus = &charlie;
/* linuss content is the info (pointer) to locate charlie, which is charlies address*/

In general, we can rewrite charlie using variable of snoopyPtr

(Snoopys pointer) and rewrite linus using variable of
snoopyPtrPtr (pointer to Snoopys pointer);
Note that this is only a naming convention. The only requirement is
that the variable be a valid identifier: begin with a letter followed by
letters, digits or _.
Dale Roberts

Pointer Variable Declarations and Initialization

Pointers
Definition:
A pointer is a variable that contains address of
another variable.
A powerful feature of C, but difficult to master
Pointers enable programs to simulate call-byreference and create/manipulate dynamic data
structures
Close relationship with arrays and strings

Dale Roberts

Pointer variables
Contain memory addresses as their values
Normal variables contain a specific value (direct reference)
count
7
Pointers contain address of a variable that has a specific
value (indirect reference)
countPtr count
7
Indirection referencing a pointer value
Dale Roberts

Pointer Variable Declarations

Pointer Declarations
type *variable_name
* used with pointer variables
Example:

int *myPtr;
Declares a pointer to an int (pointer of type int *)
Multiple pointers require using a * before each variable
declaration
Can declare pointers to any data type
Example:

int *myPtr1, *myPtr2;

float *pq;
char *pc;
Dale Roberts

Pointer Variable Initialization

Initialize pointers to 0, NULL, or an address
0 or NULL points to nothing (NULL preferred)
Example:

int *ptr, x;
5000

x=10;

5000

ptr

ptr

FFFF

FFFF

ptr

ptr = &x;

5000 FFFF

Dale Roberts

FFFF

x
10
x
10

Pointer Operators

&: Address Operator

Returns address of operand
yPtr
int y = 5;
int *yPtr;
yPtr = &y;
/* yPtr points to y */
/* yPtr gets address of y */
yptr
y
5
500000 600000
600000

address of y is the value of yPtr

Dale Roberts

Pointer Operators

* : Indirection / De-referencing Operator

Returns a synonym/alias of what its operand
points to
*yptr returns y (because yptr points to y)
* can be used for assignment that returns alias to
an object
*yptr = 7; // changes y to 7
Dereferenced pointer (operand of *) must be a
variable (no constants)

* and & are inverses

They cancel each other out
Dale Roberts

Pointer Operators
Example:
int i = 5;
int *pi;
pi = &i; /* place the address of i into pi */
Assume Symbol Table
variable

address

value at the address

874

pi

902

874

pi
902 874

i.e. &i = 874, i = 5; &pi = 902, pi = 874;

*pi = ?
*pi = 5;

// same as i = 5;

*pi = *pi * 2;

// same as i = i * 2;

*pi *= 2;

// same as i *= 2;

Dale Roberts

874

i
5

Example:
int i,*pi,**ppi;
i = 5;
pi = &i;
ppi = π

108

ppi
104

104

Variable

Address

Value at address

100

pi

104

100

ppi

108

104

pi
100

100

i
5

Usage

Meaning

Value

pi

address of int

100

*pi

int value

&pi

address of pointer

104

ppi

address of pointer

104

*ppi

address of int

100

**ppi

int value

Dale Roberts