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C++ Pointer Array

C++ Pointers

Before we explain the concept of pointer arrays, let's look at an example that uses an array of 3 integers:

Example

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;
const int MAX = 3;

int main ()
{
   int  var[MAX] = {10, 100, 200};

   for (int i = 0; i < MAX; i++)
   {
      cout << "Value of var[" << i << "] = ";
      cout << var[i] << endl;
   }
   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

Value of var[0] = 10
Value of var[1] = 100
Value of var[2] = 200

There might be a situation where we want the array to store pointers to int, char, or other data types. Here is a declaration of an array of pointers to integers:

int *ptr[MAX];

Here, ptr is declared as an array consisting of MAX integer pointers. Therefore, each element in ptr is a pointer to an int value. The following example uses three integers that will be stored in a pointer array as shown:

Example

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;
const int MAX = 3;

int main ()
{
   int  var[MAX] = {10, 100, 200};
   int *ptr[MAX];

   for (int i = 0; i < MAX; i++)
   {
      ptr[i] = &var[i]; // Assign the address of the integer
   }
   for (int i = 0; i < MAX; i++)
   {
      cout << "Value of var[" << i << "] = ";
      cout << *ptr[i] << endl;
   }
   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

Value of var[0] = 10
Value of var[1] = 100
Value of var[2] = 200

You can also use an array of pointers to characters to store a list of strings, as follows:

Example

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;
const int MAX = 4;

int main ()
{
 const char *names[MAX] = {
                   "Zara Ali",
                   "Hina Ali",
                   "Nuha Ali",
                   "Sara Ali",
   };

   for (int i = 0; i < MAX; i++)
   {
      cout << "Value of names[" << i << "] = ";
      cout << names[i] << endl;
   }
   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

Value of names[0] = Zara Ali
Value of names[1] = Hina Ali
Value of names[2] = Nuha Ali
Value of names[3] = Sara Ali

C++ Pointers

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