8. Pointers

Pointers and arrays

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Reading 1

Arrays decay to pointers

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The name of an array can be used as a pointer to its first element. a[i] is equivalent to *(a + i).

Pointer arithmetic moves by elements, not raw bytes: p + 1 points to the next int if p is an int*.

Prefer clear indexing while learning; knowing the pointer view helps when reading other people’s code and when functions take arrays.

int a[3] = {10, 20, 30};
int* p = a;        // points at a[0]
cout << *p << endl;
cout << *(p + 1) << endl;  // 20
cout << p[2] << endl;      // 30

Check 2

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Which expression equals a[2]?

Fill in 3

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Try it 4

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Trace p through the array.

main.cpp

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Program input (stdin)

Output will appear here.

Assignment 5

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Read three integers into an array a[3]. Using a pointer p set to a, print the second element (index 1) via the pointer.

main.cpp

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