C++ for Engineers and Scientists

Second Edition

Chapter 12 Pointers

Objectives
Addresses and Pointers Array Names as Pointers Pointer Arithmetic Passing Addresses Common Programming Errors

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Addresses and Pointers

Address operator & placed in front of a variable provides the memory address of the variable

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Addresses and Pointers (continued)

Pointer variable: used to store the address of another variable Indirection operator (*): when followed by a pointer, it means the variable whose address is stored in
Example:
numAddr = &num // numAddr contains address // of num *numAddr // numAddr points to num

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Addresses and Pointers (continued)

To declare a pointer, specify the type of the variable to which it will point
Syntax: dataType *pointerName; Example: int *numAddr;
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Addresses and Pointers (continued)

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Addresses and Pointers (continued)

Declaration of a pointer includes the type of variable it points to; indicates how much storage to retrieve

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Addresses and Pointers (continued)

References vs. pointers:
Reference is a named constant for an address and cannot be modified Pointer is a variable and can be modified References are said to be automatically dereferenced or implicitly dereferenced Pointers must be explicitly dereferenced using the dereferencing operator *

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Addresses and Pointers (continued)

To pass a simple variable as a function argument, use a reference When dynamic memory allocation is required, use pointers References: can be used as formal function parameters and function return types, and also as variables Reference variable: a new name for an existing variable (both point to the same location); also called an alias
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Addresses and Pointers (continued)

Syntax: dataType& aliasName = variableName;

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Addresses and Pointers (continued)

Original variable or its alias can be used Reference must be declared with same data type as original variable Reference cannot be equated with a constant Reference cannot be changed to point to another variable Multiple references can be declared on the same line; each must be preceded by &
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Addresses and Pointers (continued)

Compiler automatically uses the variable when a new value is assigned to the reference
Example: int b: // original variable int& a=b; // a is a reference variable // with bs address a = 10; // change bs value to 10

Compiler automatically performs an indirect access of bs value without explicitly using indirection symbol *; called automatic dereference
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Addresses and Pointers (continued)

Same example with a pointer:
int b; // declare integer variable int *a = &b; // declare pointer a, // store bs address *a = 10; // changes bs value to 10

This example uses explicit dereference Pointer can be changed to point to another variable Indirection operator * must be used; also called dereferencing operator
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Array Names as Pointers

Internally, the compiler uses addresses to access specific array elements
Example: integer array grade

To call grade [3], the compiler computes:

&grade[3] = &grade[0] + (3 * sizeof(int))
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Array Names as Pointers (continued)

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Array Names as Pointers (continued)

Array elements may be referenced in two ways:

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Array Names as Pointers (continued)

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Array Names as Pointers (continued)

When an array is created, the array name becomes the name of a pointer constant containing the address of the first location in the array

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Array Names as Pointers (continued)

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Array Names as Pointers (continued)

Array name and pointer can be used interchangeably in most respects, except:
True pointer is a variable, and its contents (an address) can be changed Array name is a pointer constant, and its contents (an address) cannot be changed

Array declared with size causes static allocation of memory for all the elements, whether used or not

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Array Names as Pointers (continued)

Dynamic allocation allows the allocated memory to be determined and adjusted at run time, using new and delete operators

Explicit dynamic requests are made in a declaration or assignment statement

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Array Names as Pointers (continued)

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Pointer Arithmetic
Arithmetic operations can be done on pointer variables (as long as a valid address results) For arrays, the compiler will scale the arithmetic operation to ensure that the result points to a value of the correct type Addresses can be incremented or decremented using prefix and postfix increment and decrement operators

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Pointer Arithmetic (continued)

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Pointer Arithmetic (continued)

Relational operators can be used to compare addresses in pointers

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Pointer Arithmetic (continued)

Pointers can be initialized when declared If pointing to a variable, the variable must be declared first Pointers to arrays can be initialized when declared in two ways
Example: double volts[5]; // declare array double *zing = &volts[0]; // first way double *zing = volts; // second way

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Passing Addresses
Addresses can be implicitly passed to functions using reference variables Addresses can be explicitly passed to functions using pointers; this is a pass by reference Place the address operator & in front of the variable to pass its address
Example: swap(&firstnum, &secnum)

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Passing Addresses (continued)

Function must be created with pointer arguments
Example:
void swap(double *nm1Addr, double *nm2Addr);

When an array is passed to a function, only its address is actually passed (an entire array is always passed by reference) The address of the array is also the address of element 0

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Passing Addresses (continued)

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Passing Addresses (continued)

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Passing Addresses (continued)

Pointer notation can be used for multidimensional arrays, but it becomes complex as the array dimensions increase

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Passing Addresses (continued)

An equivalent set of relationships:

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Passing Addresses (continued)

Function name is also a pointer Pointer can be declared to point to a function name

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Common Programming Errors

Attempting to store an address in a non-pointer variable Using a pointer to access non-existent array elements (out of bounds) Failing to use the bracket set [] after the delete operator when dynamically deallocating memory previously allocated by the new[] operator Incorrectly applying the address and indirection operators
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Common Programming Errors (continued)

Taking the address of a pointer constant (which is already an address) Taking the address of a reference argument, reference variable, or register variable (which are already addresses) Initializing pointer variables incorrectly Failing to understand if a variable contains an address or is an address
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Summary
Address of a variable can be obtained using the address operator & Pointer variable stores the address of another variable Array name is a pointer constant Access to an array element using subscript notation can be replaced using pointer notation Arrays can be dynamically created at run time

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Summary (continued)
Arrays are passed to functions as addresses When passing a single-dimensional array to a function, the function argument can be declared as a pointer or as an array Pointers can be incremented, decremented, compared, and assigned Values added to or subtracted from a pointer are automatically scaled based on the data type

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LABORATORY EXERCISE
SAVE IN FOLDER : LabEx2-Yname FILE NAME : LabEx3Pointer Make a program that enters the ffg choices: [1]miles-gallons-mpg Write a program that declares three single-dimensional arrays named miles, gallons, and mpg. Each array should be capable of holding ten elements. In the miles array store the numbers 240.5, 300.0, 189.6, 310.6, 280.7, 216.9, 199.4, 160.3, 177.4, 192.3. In the gallons array store the numbers 10.3, 15.6, 8.7,14,16.3,15.7, 14.9, 10.7, 8.3, 8.4. Each element of the mpg array should be calculated as the corresponding element of the mi1esarray divided by the equivalent element of the gallons array; for example, mpg [0 ] =miles [0] / gallons [0] . Use pointers to calculate and display the elements of the mpg array.

LABORATORY EXERCISE
SAVE IN FOLDER : LabEx2-Yname FILE NAME : LabEx3Pointer Make a program that enters the ffg choices: [2]month-year Create a program that would input year and month in number. Display the year and the number of days in that month. Note* you must include the leap year e.g. if the input year is 2000 and the input month is 2 (February) the output no of days must be 29 days. (use function, arrays and pointers) Sample Output:

***A leap year is divisible by 4 but not by 100 (except if divisible by 400).