Pointers, Benefits of Pointers, The &(Address of) and *(dereferencing) operator

Pointers:-

          A Pointer is a variable that holds the memory address of another variable. The storage and retrieval of data using the memory address of a variable (i.e. a pointer) is faster than that of using variable. To declare and refer to a pointer type variable, C provided two special unary operator namely * and &.

Benefits of Pointers:-

Passing arguments to functions by address when modifications of formal arguments are to be reflected on actual arguments.

Passing arrays and strings more conveniently form one function to another.

Manipulating arrays more easily by moving pointers to them instead of moving the arrays themselves.

Creating complex data structure, such as linked lists are binary tree, where one data structure must contain references to other data structures.

The &(Address of) and *(dereferencing) operator:-

          All the variables defined in a program reside at specific addresses in the memory of computer. it is possible to obtain the address of a variable by using the &(ampersand) operator.

          The other pointer operator available in C is the character ‘*’ and this is called value at address operator. It returns the value stored at a particular address. (indirection operator)

Ex:-

                             main()

                             {

                               int a=2;

                              printf(“\n Address of a=%d”,&a);

                             printf(“\n value at address a=%d”,a);

                             printf(“\n value of a=%d”,*(&a));

                             }