Pointers

[y2k1981]

Can somebody help out a beginner here?

int a[5], *p;

Does the pointer p have any association with the array a or would I have to add an extra line with something like

*p = &a[0];

I would have thought that they don't have any association, seing that you could declare two ordinary variables eg

int a, b;

and they wouldn't have any association with each other but in a book I've been reading lately it implied that *p would be a pointer to the array a.

Can somebody clarify for me?

 

[rotis23]

you're right, declarations do not imply associations.

 

[hughLg]

int *p;   /* pointer to int. */
int iarr[5];   /* array of int. */

p = iarr;   /* same as p = &iarr[0]. */
*p = 123;   /* same as p[0] = 123, *&p[0] = 123, and iarr[0] = 123. */
(*p)++;   /* the value stored at the address pointed to by p is increased by 1. i.e. 124. */
p++;   /* now p is refer to iarr[1]. */
/* in expressing the array, we can like this. */
2[iarr] = 912;