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Programming Fundamentals
Pointer
Dr. Ahmed Alnasheri 1/16/2021
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 1
Pointers in C++
Topics to cover:
• Overview of Pointers
• Pointer Declaration
• Pointer Assignment
• Pointer Arithmetic
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 2
Overview of Pointers
• A Pointer in C++ is variable whose value is a memory
address.
• With pointers many memory locations can be
referenced.
• Some data structures use pointers (e.g. linked list,
tree).
• The * and & operators
- & operator is the address operator
- * operator is the dereferencing operator. It is used in
pointers declaration
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 3
Pointer Declaration
• Pointers are declared as follows:
<type> * variable_name ;
e.g.
int * xPtr; // xPtr is a pointer to data of type integer
char * cPtr; //cPtr is a pointer to data of type character
void * yPtr; // yPtr is a generic pointer,
// represents any type
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 4
Pointer Assignment
• Assignment can be applied on pointers of the same type
• If not the same type, a cast operator must be used
• Exception: pointer to void does not need casting to convert a
pointer to void type
• void pointers cannot be dereferenced
• Example
int *xPtr, *yPtr; int x = 5;
…
xPtr = & x; // xPtr now points to address of x
yPtr = xPtr; // now yPtr and xPtr point to x
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 5
Cont. Example
1. int *xPtr, *yPtr; int x = 5;
2. xPtr = & x;
3. yPtr = xPtr;
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 6
Cont. Example
4. cout << *xPtr;
// this statement should print the value that is
pointed to by xPtr, which is 5.
5. cout<< xPtr;
// this statement should print the contents of xPtr
location, which is the address 1008.
- The same applies for yPtr, since it points to the
same location as xPtr.
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 7
Pointer Arithmetic
• Increment / decrement pointers ( ++ or -- )
• Add / subtract an integer to/from a pointer
( + or += , - or -= )
• Pointers may be subtracted from each other
• Pointer arithmetic is meaningless unless
performed on an array
• This will be discussed in more details in Arrays
chapter.
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 8
Examples on Pointers
//File: [Link]
//A program to test pointers and references
#include <iostream.h>
void main ( )
{ int intVar = 10;
int *intPtr; // intPtr is a pointer
intPtr = & intVar;
cout << "\nLocation of intVar: " << & intVar;
cout << "\nContents of intVar: " << intVar;
cout << "\nLocation of intPtr: " << & intPtr;
cout << "\nContents of intPtr: " << intPtr;
cout << "\nThe value that intPtr points to: " << * intPtr;
}
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 9
Call by Reference
#include <iostream.h>
void Increment(int&);
void main() {
int A = 10;
Increment(A);
cout<<A<<endl;
}
void Increment(int &X) { ++X; }
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 10
Call by Reference
//if you add extra cout statements to the program, the output will become:
#include <iostream.h>
void Increment(int&);
void main() {
int A = 10;
cout << “in main “<< &A << endl;
Increment(A);
cout<<A<<endl;
}
void Increment(int &X) { ++X;
cout << “in fun “<< X << endl;
cout << “in fun “<< &X << endl;
}
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 11
Call by Pointer
#include <iostream.h>
void Increment(int*);
void main() {
int A = 10;
Increment(&A);
cout<<A<<endl;
}
void Increment(int *X) { ++*X; }
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 12
Call by Pointer
//if you add extra cout statements to the program, the output will become:
#include <iostream.h>
void Increment(int*);
void main() {
int A = 10;
cout << "in main "<< &A<< endl;
Increment(&A);
cout<<A<<endl;
}
void Increment(int *X)
{ ++*X;
cout << "in fun X "<< X << endl;
cout << "in fun *X "<< *X << endl;
cout << "in fun &X"<< &X <<endl;
}
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 13
Examples on Pointers (Cont.)
//File: [Link]
//A program to call a function to swap two numbers using reference parameters
#include <iostream.h>
void swap(int *, int *); // This is swap's prototype
void main()
{ int x = 5, y = 7;
swap(&x , &y); // calling swap with reference parameters
cout << "\n x is now "<< x << " and y is now " << y << '\n';
}
// swap function is defined here using dereferencing operator ‘*’
void swap(int *a, int *b)
{ int temp;
temp = *a; // here the values which a and b point to are swapped
*a = *b;
*b = temp;
}
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 14
The End
Programming Fundamentals (Lecture Seven) 15
