What is Pointer in C

A Pointer is a variable which contains the address of another variable that is direct address of the memory location. and every memory location has address defined which can be accessed using ampersand (&) operator,

Symbol	Nme	Description
& (ampersand sign)	Address of operator	Give the address of a variable
* (asterisk sign)	Indirection operator	Gives the contents of an object pointed to by a pointer.

Advantage of Pointer

Pointer reduces the code and improves the performance, because it direct access the address of variable.
By use the pointer concept we can return multiple value from any function.
By use pointer we can access any memory location from pointer.

Example:-

#include<stdio.h>
int main(){
int number=50;  
int *p;    
p=&number;//stores the address of number variable  
printf("Address of p variable is %x \n",p); // p contains the address of the number therefore printing p gives the address of number.   
printf("Value of p variable is %d \n",*p); // As we know that * is used to dereference a pointer therefore if we print *p, we will get the value stored at the address contained by p.  
return 0;
}  

Output

Address of number variable is fff4
Address of p variable is fff4
Value of p variable is 50

Next Topic

← prev next →

C Tutorial

Conditional &Loops

Array

Pointers

Functions

Structures And Unions

What is Pointer in C

Advantage of Pointer

Example:-