Declaration syntax

[LRS Kumar]

int* p[10] would mean that p is an array of 10 pointers to int.

I was a little puzzzled when I came across the following:

int (*p)[10];


What exactly does this one mean?


Thank you for your time.

[Leor Zolman]

Re: Declaration syntax

On 9 Apr 2004 16:16:25 -0700, lrsk1260@yahoo. co.in (LRS Kumar) wrote:
[color=blue]
>int* p[10] would mean that p is an array of 10 pointers to int.
>
>I was a little puzzzled when I came across the following:
>
>int (*p)[10];
>
>
>What exactly does this one mean?[/color]

p is a pointer to an array of 10 ints.

The vast majority of the times when you wish to point to an array, you do
it by defining a pointer to the element type, and setting that pointer to
point to the first element of the array:

int a[10];
int *pi;
...
pi = a; // same as: pi = &a[0];

Using a bona-fide pointer-to-array comes into use more when having to point
to multi-dimensional arrays, which C/C++ does not support in any especially
friendly way. I could not find one example (and I tried for a while) of
when a pointer to a 1-dimensional array of T's would be preferable to just
using a pointer-to-T, but I've no doubt there must be at least one
somewhere (well, almost no doubt; if no one provides an example here, try
comp.lang.c). In the meantime, for a good tutorial document on declarations
that includes quite a bit more than you'd typically expect to find on
pointer-to-arrays, check this out:

http://www.djmnet.org/lore/c-declarations.txt

HTH,
-leor
[color=blue]
>
>
>Thank you for your time.[/color]

--
Leor Zolman --- BD Software --- www.bdsoft.com
On-Site Training in C/C++, Java, Perl and Unix
C++ users: Download BD Software's free STL Error Message Decryptor at:

https://www.bdsoft.com/tools/stlfilt.html

[Leor Zolman]

Re: Declaration syntax

On 9 Apr 2004 16:16:25 -0700, lrsk1260@yahoo. co.in (LRS Kumar) wrote:
[color=blue]
>int* p[10] would mean that p is an array of 10 pointers to int.
>
>I was a little puzzzled when I came across the following:
>
>int (*p)[10];
>
>
>What exactly does this one mean?[/color]

p is a pointer to an array of 10 ints.

The vast majority of the times when you wish to point to an array, you do
it by defining a pointer to the element type, and setting that pointer to
point to the first element of the array:

int a[10];
int *pi;
...
pi = a; // same as: pi = &a[0];

Using a bona-fide pointer-to-array comes into use more when having to point
to multi-dimensional arrays, which C/C++ does not support in any especially
friendly way. I could not find one example (and I tried for a while) of
when a pointer to a 1-dimensional array of T's would be preferable to just
using a pointer-to-T, but I've no doubt there must be at least one
somewhere (well, almost no doubt; if no one provides an example here, try
comp.lang.c). In the meantime, for a good tutorial document on declarations
that includes quite a bit more than you'd typically expect to find on
pointer-to-arrays, check this out:

http://www.djmnet.org/lore/c-declarations.txt

HTH,
-leor
[color=blue]
>
>
>Thank you for your time.[/color]

--
Leor Zolman --- BD Software --- www.bdsoft.com
On-Site Training in C/C++, Java, Perl and Unix
C++ users: Download BD Software's free STL Error Message Decryptor at:

https://www.bdsoft.com/tools/stlfilt.html