C++ Demystified(c) A Self-Teaching Guide

Like any variable or constant, you must declare a pointer before you can work with it. The syntax of declaring a pointer is almost the same as declaring a variable which stores a value rather than an address. However, the meaning of the pointer s data type is quite different than the meaning of the data type of a variable which stores a value rather than an address.

Syntax of a Pointer Declaration

The syntax of declaring a pointer is almost the same as the syntax of declaring the variables we have worked with in previous chapters. The following statement declares an integer pointer variable:

int* iPtr;

The asterisk you use to declare a pointer is the same asterisk that you use for multiplication. However, in this statement the asterisk is being used in a declaration, so in this context it is being used to designate a variable as a pointer. Later in this chapter, we will use the asterisk for a third purpose, as an indirection operator.

The integer pointer variable also can be declared with the asterisk preceding the variable name instead of following the data type:

int *iPtr;

Either alternative syntax is equally correct because the compiler generally ignores white spaces between an operator and a variable name, constant name, or number. Indeed, the following pointer declaration also works:

int*ptr;

My preference is the first example, in which the asterisk follows the data type and is separated by a white space from the variable name, since (in my opinion) it best signifies that the variable is a pointer. However, all three syntax variations are correct. In any of these variations, the only difference between declaring a pointer variable and a variable which stores a value rather than an address is the asterisk between the data type and the pointer name.

The Meaning of Pointer Data Types

While the syntax of declaring a pointer is almost the same as declaring the variables and constants which store a value rather than an address, the meaning of the data type in the declaration of a pointer is different than in the declaration of those other variables and constants.

With the variables we have worked with previously, the data type in the variable declaration describes the type of data that can be stored in that variable. Thus, the value of an integer variable or constant is an integer, the value of a character variable or constant is a character, and so forth.

However, with a pointer, the data type in the declaration means something different, namely the data type of another variable (or constant) whose memory address is the value of the pointer. In other words, the value of an integer pointer must be the address of an integer variable or constant, the value of a float pointer must be the address of a float variable or constant, and so forth.

The actual data type of the value of all pointers, whether integer, float, character, or otherwise , is the same, a long hexadecimal number that represents a memory address. The only difference between pointers of different data types is the data type of the variable or constant that the pointer points to. This is demonstrated by the following program, which uses the sizeof operator to show that the sizes of pointers of different data types are the same (a long data type uses 4 bytes on my operating system and compiler) even though the different data types (int, float, char) are not all the same size :

#include <iostream> using namespace std; int main () { int* iPtr; float* fPtr; char *cPtr; cout << "The size of iPtr is " << sizeof(iPtr) << endl; cout << "The size of fPtr is " << sizeof(fPtr) << endl; cout << "The size of cPtr is " << sizeof(cPtr) << endl; return 0; }

The output is therefore:

The size of iPtr is 4 The size of fPtr is 4 The size of cPtr is 4

Otherwise, a pointer is similar to the variables or constants we have studied previously. A pointer itself may be a variable or a constant, and like other variables or constants, it is also stored at a memory address. What distinguishes a pointer is that its value is the memory address of another variable or constant.