UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA

FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

Course Name: Programming Fundamentals Course Code: CS-102

Lab Manual No. 13

Pointers in C++

Semester:

FALL 2021

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

Objectives:-

The objectives of this session is to understand the concept of pointers and how to use pointers for
efficient programming in C++.

Introduction:-

To understand the pointers we need to have the knowledge of:

1. Memory Locations
2. Memory Addresses
3. Storage of variables in memory.

Memory Addresses and Variables:-

Computer memory is divided into various locations. Each location is of one byte and each byte
has a unique address. When a variable is created into memory three properties are associated
with it:

1. Type of variable
2. Name of Variable
3. Memory Address assigned to the variable

e.g.

int xyz=6760;

where,

int is the data type

xyz name of the variable

6760 value of the variable

When a variable is declared a memory location is assigned to it. Suppose the memory address
assigned to the above variable xyz is 1011.

To print the contents of the variable xyz we have to write:

cout<<xyz<<endl;

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

The memory address where the contents of the specific variable are stored can also be accessed.
The address operator (&) is used with the variable name to access its memory address. The
address operator (&) is used before the variable name.

For example to print the address of the variable xyz we have to write it like:

cout<<&xyz<<endl;

The memory address is printed in hexadecimal format.

Pointer Variable:-

The variable that is used to hold/store the memory address of another variable is called a
pointer variable or simply a pointer.

Syntax:

datatype *var_name;
int *ptr; //ptr can point to an address which holds int data

The data type of the variable (whose address a pointer is to hold) and the pointer variable must
be the same.

A pointer variable is declared by placing a asterisk (*) after data type or before variable name in
data type statement. E.g. if pointer variable “p” is to hold memory address of an integer variable
it is declared as:

int *p;

or to hold address of a float type variable we can declare as:

float *rep;

How to use a pointer?

- Define a pointer variable
- Assigning the address of a variable to a pointer using unary operator (&) which returns the
address of that variable.
- Accessing the value stored in the address using unary operator (*) which returns the value of
the variable located at the address specified by its operand.

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

The reason we associate data type to a pointer is that it knows how many bytes the data is stored
in. When we increment a pointer, we increase the pointer by the size of data type to which it
points.

Example No 01:-

Write a program to assign two values to two integer type variables a and b. Assign the memory
address of variable a and b to pointer variable x and y respectively. Print out the memory
addresses of the variables a and b through their pointer variables.

#include <iostream>

#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int main()

int a,b,*x,*y;

a=126;

b=19;

x=&a; //Reference operator->returns pointer (address)

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

y=&b;

cout<<"Memory Address of Variable a = "<<x<<endl;

cout<<"Memory Address OF Variable b = "<<y<<endl;

system("PAUSE");

return 0;

We can access the contents of the memory addresses of a pointer variable by placing a asterisk
(*) before pointer variable. e.g. to access contents of a and b through pointer variable x and y a
asterisk (*) is used before pointer variable like:

cout<<"Memory Address of Variable a = "<<x<<endl;

cout<<"Memory Address OF Variable b = "<<y<<endl;

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

Example No 02:-

Write a program to assign a value to a variable using its pointer variable. Print out the value
using variable name and also print out the memory address of the variable using pointer variable.

#include <iostream>

#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int main()

int a,*x;
x=&a;

cout<<"Enter the data value ?"<<endl;

cin>>*x;

cout<<"Value of Variable is = "<<a<<endl;

cout<<"Memory Address OF Variable = "<<x<<endl;

system("PAUSE");

return 0;

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

“Void” type Pointer:-

void *p;

The pointer variable “p” can hold the memory address of the variables of any data type.

Pointers and Arrays:-

There is a close relationship between pointers and arrays. In advanced programming arrays are
accessed using pointers.

An array consist of consecutive locations. To access array the memory location of the first
element of the array is accessed using pointer variable. Pointer is then incremented to access
other elements of the array. The pointer is increased in value according to the size of the
elements of the array.

int x[5];

int *p;

To store the starting address of the array x the following statement is used.

p=x;

& operator is not used only when the array name is used. If the element of the array is used then
& operator is used. For example

P=&x[0];

If one is added to or subtracted from the pointer variable “p” the contents of the pointer variable
“p” is incremented or decremented by (1 x size of the object or element) i.e. it is incremented by
the size of the object or element to which pointer refer.

For example if location of first element in memory is 200 i.e. the value of the pointer variable
“p” is 200 and it refers to an integer variable. When following statement is executed:

p=p+1;

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

New value of “p” will be 200 + 1 x 2=202. All elements of array can be accessed by this
technique.

Pointer Variable p p p+1 p+2 p+3 p+4 Array Indexes

200 202 204 206 208 Memory Locations
x
x[0] x[1] x[2] x[3] x[4]
Array Values

Question No 03:-

Write a program to input data into an array and then to print on the computer screen by using
pointer notation.

#include<iostream>

#include<cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int main()

int arr[5],*pp,i;

pp=arr;

cout<<"Enter values into an array" <<endl;

for(i=0;i<=4;i++)

cin>>arr[i];

cout<<"Values from array " <<endl;

for(i=0;i<=4;i++)

cout<<*pp++<<endl;

system("PAUSE");

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

return 0;

Lab Task:-

- Write a program to input data into an array and find out

the minimum value from array through pointers.
- Write a program that input five float type value in an array
and displays the values in reverse order.

Passing Pointers as Arguments to Functions:-

The pointer variables can also be passed to functions as arguments. When a pointer variable is
passed to a function the address of the variable is passed to the function. Thus a variable is
passed to a function not by its value but by its reference.

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

Example 4:-

Write a program to pass two parameters to the function to add a constant value of 100 to the
passed values using pointers.

#include<iostream>

#include<cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int main()

void temp(int*,int*);

int a,b;

a=10;

b=20;

temp(&a,&b);

cout<<"Value of a = "<<a<<endl;

cout<<"Value of b = "<<b<<endl;

cout<<"Okay"<<endl;

system("PAUSE");

return 0;

void temp(int *x, int *y)

*x=*x+100;

*y=*y+100;

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

In the above program the function “temp” has two parameters which are pointers and are of int
type. When the function “temp” is called the addresses of the variables “a” and “b” are passed to
the function.

In the function a value 100 is added to both variables “a” and “b” through their pointers.
That is the previous values of variables “a” and “b” are increased by 100. When the control
returns to the program the value of variable a is 110 and that of variable b is 120.

Pointers as Strings:-

A string is a sequence of characters. A string type variable is declared in the same manner as an
array type variable is declared. This is because the string is an array of character type variables.

Example 5:-

Write a C++ code to print a string character by character.

#include<iostream>

#include<cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int main()

char st[]="Pakistan";

void ppp(char*);

ppp(st);

cout<<endl;

system("PAUSE");

return 0;

void ppp(char *sss)

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

while(*sss!='\0')

{
cout<<*sss<<endl;

*sss++;

Example No 06:-

Write a program to find length of string by using pointers.

#include<iostream>

#include<cstdlib>

//#include<string.h>

using namespace std;

int main()

char st[25];

int x;

int len(char*);

cout<<"Enter the String"<<endl;

gets(st);

x=len(st);

cout<<"Length of string is "<<x<<endl;

cout<<endl;

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21
 UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA
FACULTY OF TELECOMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

Department Of Computer Science

system("PAUSE");

return 0;

int len(char *sss)

int c=0;

while(*sss!='\0')

c++;

*sss++;

return c;

Lab Task:-

1. Write a program to swap two values by passing pointers as

arguments to the function.
2. Write a program that that inputs several students in a class
from user. It then declares a dynamic array with same number
of elements. It inputs the marks of students and then
displays the average marks of the whole class. Also gives a
choice at end to modify the marks of any student. And then
calculates the average accordingly.

3. Write a program to copy one string to another string by

using pointers.

4. Write a program to combine two strings using pointers.

Programming Fundamentals Lab Instructor: - Muhammad Faheem Saleem

Session: CS- 2K21