Can someone explain what the * and & keys do? I'm used to java and don't really know much about the C syntax yet.

So for the following code, why are they included?



Does it have anything to do with global and local variables or..?

This post was edited by lopelurag on Sep 18 2012 07:05pm

Ok so I guess the * indicates the a variable is a pointer?

Whats the point of a pointer if you can just delcare a variable like: int number = 0;

* = dereference - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4955198/what-does-dereferencing-a-pointer-mean
& = memory address, also mentioned/noted in the link above.

read any intro to C book or website or tutorial. they'll explain pointers and what they are, and why they're used.

That helped thanks, just one question, whats the point of a pointer in the first place?

I'm used to java and don't exactly understand the point of a pointer? So it allocated a space in memory for you to store whatever data.

Like why not just do:






Yeah that's what I'm doing right now

This post was edited by lopelurag on Sep 18 2012 07:38pm

Pointers are incredibly useful. Just one example would be linked lists etc.

Pointers are used in Java as well... they're just hidden/abstracted away in the language. In fact, when you declare something like int x = 5; in Java, you are declaring a pointer.

This post was edited by irimi on Sep 18 2012 07:51pm

Yeah ok I can see how they'd be important with linked lists, we just started learning about them.

In all the examples we've been shown we haven't really delved into WHY they are useful, just how to reference and dereference them.

So they just point to a location allocated in memory?

Could be the class you are in. Unless you are utilizing/learning something which NEEDS pointers, they obviously won't seem important at the moment

just wait a bit

edit:

pointers contain the address (location) of some kind of data type. (in memory yes)


Could be an int, could even be a struct.

By deref, you can access the value of the address that the pointer points to.

This post was edited by Eep on Sep 18 2012 07:54pm

Yeah I guess we just haven't really used them in a meaningful way. Thanks for the help I appreciate it.