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Variables Revisited: What Actually Happens When We Declare Variables?

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4 views

Variables Revisited: What Actually Happens When We Declare Variables?

Uploaded by

opensky
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Variables Revisited

• What actually happens when we declare variables?


char a;

• C reserves a byte in memory to store a.

• Where is that memory? At an address.

• Under the hood, C has been keeping track of variables


and their addresses.

Slide credit: B. Huang


This week
• Pointers
– Pointer Variable Declarations and Initialization
– Pointer Operators
– Pointers to void
– Calling Functions by Reference
– Passing parameters by reference
– sizeof function
– Dynamic Memory Management
– Pointer Arithmetic
– Pointers and Arrays
– Pointers to Functions
Pointers
• We can work with memory addresses too. We can
use variables called pointers.

• A pointer is a variable that contains the address of a


variable.

• Pointers provide a powerful and flexible method for


manipulating data in your programs; but they are
difficult to master.

– Close relationship with arrays and strings


Benefits of Pointers
• Pointers allow you to reference a large data structure in a
compact way.
• Pointers facilitate sharing data between different parts of
a program.
– Call-by-Reference
• Dynamic memory allocation: Pointers make it possible to
reserve new memory during program execution.

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