Chapter Four

Pointers
Part 2

By: Sinodos G.
Pointers
 Pointers are used to store addresses rather than values.
 The pointer is a variable, it is also known as locator or
indicator that points to an address of a value.
 Pointers are variables that store the memory addresses of
other variables.
 a variable that holds the address of another variable.

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C++ pointers
Like regular variables, pointers have a data type.
Example:
• a pointer of type integer can hold the address of a variable of type
integer.
• A pointer of character type can hold the address of a variable of
character type.
 Some C++ tasks are performed more easily with pointers
• dynamic memory allocation, cannot be performed without them.
 Memory location:-
 every variable is a memory location
 every memory location has its address
 Defined and accessed using ampersand (&) operator which denotes
an address in memory.
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Creating Pointers
 need to declare a pointer before you can use it. However, pointer
names are preceded by an asterisk(*)
 Syntax:
data_type *pointer_name;
 Example:
int* myPointer, myVar; //a pointer and an int
int *ip; // pointer to an integer
double *dp; // pointer to a double
float *fp; // pointer to a float
char *ch // pointer to character
 The above lines are all valid ways to declare a pointer.

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 Cont’d …

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Using Pointers in C++
 There are few important operations, which we will do with
the pointers very frequently.
• define a pointer variable.
• assign address of a variable to a pointer.
• Finally access the value at the address available in the
pointer variable.
 This is done by using unary operator * that returns the
value of the variable located at the address specified by its
operand.

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 Cont’d …

 Advantage of pointer
 Pointer reduces the code and improves the performance,
it is used to retrieving strings, trees etc.

 used with arrays, structures and functions.

 we can return multiple values from function using
pointer.

 It makes you able to access any memory location in the

computer's memory.

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Cont’d …

Example

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Pointer Operators
 Dereference operator (*)
• Represented as variable and * operator
• Used to dereference of a variable
• There are three ways to declare pointer variables,
string* data; // Preferred
string *data;
string * data;

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 Cont’d …

 Reference Operator (&)

• Called as address operators
• Used to display the address of a variable
• Refer to the specific location in memory (its memory
address).
• The address that locates a variable within memory is
what we call a reference to that variable.
• Called an ampersand sign (&) symbol
int num=$data;
• Also it is known as reference operator

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Cont’d …

• The address of variable to pointer we use ampersand

symbol (&).

• They have data type just like variables

• Pointers are used to store addresses rather than values.

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Changing Value Pointed by Pointers
 If pointVar points to the address of var, we can change the
value of var by using *pointVar.

 For example:-

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 Cont’d …
 Example:
string food = "Pizza";
string* ptr = &food;
// Output the value of food (Pizza)
cout << food << "\n";
// Output the memory address of food (0x6dfed4)
cout << &food << "\n";
// Access the memory address of food and output its value (Pizza)
cout << *ptr << "\n";
// Change the value of the pointer
*ptr = "Hamburger";
// Output the new value of the pointer (Hamburger)
cout << *ptr << "\n";
// Output the new value of the food variable (Hamburger)
cout << food << "\n";
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 Cont’d ..

Exercise:
 Create a pointer
string food = "Pizza";
// A food variable of type string
variable with the string* ptr = &food;
name ptr, that should // A pointer variable, with the name ptr, that stores the
point to a string address of food
// Output the value of food (Pizza)
variable named food: cout << food << "\n";
// Output the memory address of food (0x6dfed4)
cout << &food << "\n";
String food = // Output the memory address of food with the pointer
(0x6dfed4)
"Pizza";
cout << ptr << "\n";
string *ptr =
&food;

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Example

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 Cont’d …

 Difference between reference and dereference operators:

• & is the reference operator and can be read as
"address of"
• * is the dereference operator and can be read as "value
pointed by"
 they have opposite meanings.
 A variable referenced with & can be dereferenced with *.
 Right after these two statements, all of the following
expressions would give true as result:
aa == 25
• •1 aa = 25;
&aa == 1xcyz
•2 ted = &aa ted == 1xcyz
*ted == aa
*ted == 25
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 Pointers and Arrays

 Refer to the address of the first element of the array in variable.

Example:
 supposing these two declarations:

• an array can be considered a constant pointer.

• Therefore, the following allocation would not be valid.
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 Cont’d …

 Notice that we have used arr instead of &arr[0]. This is

because both are the same. So, the code below is the same
as the code above.
int *ptr;
int arr[5];
ptr = &arr[0];
 The addresses for the rest of the array elements are given
by &arr[1], &arr[2], &arr[3], and &arr[4].

• while assigning the address of array to pointer don’t use

ampersand sign(&)
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Cont’d . . .

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Example:

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Point to Every Array Elements
• Suppose we need to point to the fourth element of the
array using the same pointer ptr.
• Here, if ptr points to the first element in the above
example then ptr + 3 will point to the fourth element.
int *ptr;
int arr[5];
ptr = arr;

ptr + 1 is equivalent to &arr[1];

ptr + 2 is equivalent to &arr[2];
ptr + 3 is equivalent to &arr[3];
ptr + 4 is equivalent to &arr[4];
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 Cont’d …
• we can access the elements using the single pointer.
• Example:-// use dereference operator
*ptr == arr[0];
*(ptr + 1) is equivalent to arr[1];
*(ptr + 2) is equivalent to arr[2];
*(ptr + 3) is equivalent to arr[3];
*(ptr + 4) is equivalent to arr[4];
• Suppose if we have initialized
ptr = &arr[2]; then
ptr - 2 is equivalent to &arr[0];
ptr - 1 is equivalent to &arr[1];
ptr + 1 is equivalent to &arr[3];
ptr + 2 is equivalent to &arr[4];
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 Cont’d …

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 Array of Pointers

• you can define

arrays to hold a
number of
pointers.

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 Cont’d …

 Array name used

as pointer
 Example:
• Write a C++
Program to
insert and
display data
entered by using
pointer notation.

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Access Array Elements Using Pointer

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Pointers to Pointers
 a form of multiple indirection or a chain of pointers.
 In order to do that, we only need to add an asterisk (*)
for each level of reference in their declarations:
1 char a; • This, supposing the randomly chosen
2 char * b; memory locations for each variable of
3 char ** c; 7230, 8092 and 10502, could be
4 a = 'z'; represented as:
5 b = &a;
6 c = &b;

int **var;

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 Cont’d …

 In this example variable

Example
c, which can be used in
three different levels of
indirection, each one of
them would correspond to
a different value:
• c has type char** and
a value of 8092
• *c has type char* and
a value of 7230
• **c has type char and
a value of 'z'

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 Void Pointers

 The void type of pointer is a special type of pointer.

 void represents the absence of type, so void pointers
are pointers that point to a value that has no type
(and thus also an undetermined length and
undetermined dereference properties).

 This allows void pointers to point to any data type,

from an integer value or a float to a string of
characters.

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Null Pointer
 A null pointer is a regular pointer of any pointer type
which has a special value that indicates that it is not
pointing to any valid reference or memory address.
 This value is the result of type-casting the integer value
zero to any pointer type.
1 int * p;
2 p = 0; // p has a null pointer value

• Do not confuse null pointers with void pointers.

• A null pointer is a value that any pointer may take to
represent that it is pointing to "nowhere", while a void
pointer is a special type of pointer that can point to
somewhere without a specific type.

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• A pointer that is assigned NULL is called a null pointer.
• NULL pointer is a constant with a value of zero defined in
several standard libraries, including iostream.

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 Question

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