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C Pointer Array

C Pointers

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

Example

#include <stdio.h>

const int MAX = 3;

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

   for (i = 0; i < MAX; i++)
   {
      printf("Value of var[%d] = %d\n", i, var[i] );
   }
   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 an array to store pointers to int, char, or any other data type. Below is the 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 stored in a pointer array, as shown below:

Example

#include <stdio.h>

const int MAX = 3;

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

   for ( i = 0; i < MAX; i++)
   {
      ptr[i] = &var[i]; /* Assign the address of integer */
   }
   for ( i = 0; i < MAX; i++)
   {
      printf("Value of var[%d] = %d\n", i, *ptr[i] );
   }
   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 <stdio.h>

const int MAX = 4;

int main ()
{
   const char *names[] = {
                   "Zara Ali",
                   "Hina Ali",
                   "Nuha Ali",
                   "Sara Ali",
   };
   int i = 0;

   for ( i = 0; i < MAX; i++)
   {
      printf("Value of names[%d] = %s\n", i, names[i] );
   }
   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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