Pointers

Chapter 8 of C++ How to Program, 10/e

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.1 Introduction
 Pointers are one of the most powerful, yet challenging to
use, C++ capabilities.
 We’ll discuss when it’s appropriate to use pointers, and
show how to use them correctly and responsibly.
 Pointers also enable pass-by-reference and can be used to
create and manipulate pointer-based dynamic data
structures.
 We also show the intimate relationship among built-in
arrays and pointers.
 In new software development projects, you should favor
array and vector objects to built-in arrays.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.2 Pointer Variable Declarations and
Initialization
 A pointer contains the memory address of a variable
that, in turn, contains a specific value.
 In this sense, a variable name directly references a

value, and a pointer indirectly references a value.

 Referencing a value through a pointer is called

indirection.
 Diagrams typically represent a pointer as an arrow

from the variable that contains an address to the

variable located at that address in memory.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.2.1 Delcaring Pointers
 The declaration
int* countPtr, count;
declares the variable countPtr to be of type int* (i.e., a
pointer to an int value) and is read (right to left),
“countPtr is a pointer to int.”
◦ Variable count in the preceding declaration is declared to be an
int, not a pointer to an int.
◦ The * in the declaration applies only to countPtr.
◦ Each variable being declared as a pointer must be preceded by an
asterisk (*).
 When * appears in a declaration, it is not an operator—it
indicates that the variable being declared is a pointer.
 Pointers can be declared to point to objects of any type.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.2.2 Initializing Pointers
 Pointers should be initialized to nullptr (new in
C++11) or to a memory either when they’re
declared or in an assignment.
 A pointer with the value nullptr “points to

nothing” and is known as a null pointer.

 From this point forward, when we refer to a “null

pointer” we mean a pointer with the value nullptr.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.2.3 Null Pointers Prior to C++11
 In earlier versions of C++, the value specified for a null
pointer was 0 or NULL.
 NULL is defined in several standard library headers to
represent the value 0.
 Initializing a pointer to NULL is equivalent to initializing
a pointer to 0, but prior to C++11, 0 was used by
convention.
 The value 0 is the only integer value that can be assigned
directly to a pointer variable without first casting the
integer to a pointer type.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.3 Pointer Operators
The unary operators & and * are used to create
pointer values and “dereference” pointers,
respectively.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.3.1 Address (&) Operator
 The address operator (&) is a unary operator that
obtains the memory address of its operand.
 Assuming the declarations
int y{5}; // declare variable y
int* yPtr{nullptr}; // declare pointer variable yPtr
the statement
yPtr = &y; // assign address of y to yPtr
assigns the address of the variable y to pointer
variable yPtr.
 Figure 8.2 shows a representation of memory after
the preceding assignment.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.3.1 Address (&) Operator
 Figure 8.3 shows another pointer representation in
memory with integer variable y stored at memory
location 600000 and pointer variable yPtr stored at
location 500000.
 The operand of the address operator must be an lvalue—
the address operator cannot be applied to constants or
to expressions that result in temporary values (like the
results of calculations).

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.3.2 Indirection (*) Operator
 The unary * operator—commonly referred to as the
indirection operator or dereferencing operator—returns
an lvalue representing the object to which its pointer
operand points.
◦ Called dereferencing a pointer
 A dereferenced pointer may also be used as an lvalue on
the left side of an assignment.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.3.3 Using the Address (&) and
Indirection (*) Operators
 The program in Fig. 8.4 demonstrates the & and *
pointer operators.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.3.3 Using the Address (&) and
Indirection (*) Operators
Precedence and Associativity of the Operators
Discussed So Far
 Figure 8.5 lists the precedence and associativity of

the operators introduced to this point.

 The address (&) and dereferencing operator (*) are

unary operators on the fourth level.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.4 Pass-by-Reference with Pointers
 There are three ways in C++ to pass arguments to a
function
◦ pass-by-value
◦ pass-by-reference with reference arguments
◦ pass-by-reference with pointer arguments.
 Here, we explain pass-by-reference with pointer
arguments.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.4 Pass-by-Reference with Pointers
 Pointers can be used to modify one or more variables in
the caller or to pass pointers to large data objects to
avoid the overhead of copying the objects.
 You can use pointers and the indirection operator (*) to
accomplish pass-by-reference.
 When calling a function with an argument that should be
modified, the address of the argument is passed.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.4 Pass-by-Reference with Pointers (cont.)
An Example of Pass-By-Value
 Figure 8.6 passes variable number by value to

function cubeByValue, which cubes its argument

and passes the new value result back to main using
a return statement.
 The calling function has the opportunity to examine

the function call’s result before modifying any

variable’s values.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.4 Pass-by-Reference with Pointers (cont.)
An Example of Pass-By-Reference with Pointers
 Figure 8.7 passes the variable number to function

cubeByReference using pass-by-reference with a

pointer argument—the address of number is passed
to the function.
 The function uses the dereferenced pointer to cube

the value to which nPtr points.

 This directly changes the value of number in main.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.4 Pass-by-Reference with Pointers (cont.)
Insight: All Arguments Are Passed By Value
 Passing a variable by reference with a pointer does

not actually pass anything by reference—a pointer to

that variable is passed by value and is copied into the
function’s corresponding pointer parameter.
 The called function can then access that variable in

the caller simply by dereferencing the pointer, thus

accomplishing pass-by-reference.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.4 Pass-by-Reference with Pointers (cont.)
Graphical Analysis of Pass-By-Value and Pass-By-
Reference
 Figures 8.8–8.9 analyze graphically the execution of
the programs in Fig. 8.6 and Fig. 8.7, respectively.
 In the diagrams, the values in blue rectangles above

a given expression or variable represent the value of

that expression or variable.
 Each diagram’s right column shows functions

cubeByValue (Fig. 8.6) and cubeByReference

(Fig. 8.7) only when they’re executing.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.5 Built-In Arrays
 Here we present built-in arrays, which are also fixed-size
data structures.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.5.1 Declaring and Accessing a Built-In
Array
 To specify the type of the elements and the number of
elements required by a built-in array, use a declaration of
the form:
type arrayName[arraySize];
 The compiler reserves the appropriate amount of memory.
 arraySize must be an integer constant greater than zero.
 To reserve 12 elements for built-in array of ints named c,
use the declaration
◦ int c[12];
 As with array objects, you use the subscript ([]) operator
to access the individual elements of a built-in array.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.5.2 Initializing Built-In Arrays
 You can initialize the elements of a built-in array using an
initializer list as in
int n[5]{50, 20, 30, 10, 40};
◦ creates a built-in array of five ints and initializes them to the values
in the initializer list.
 If you provide fewer initializers
◦ the number of elements, the remaining elements are value
initialized—fundamental numeric types are set to 0, bools are set to
false, pointers are set to nullptr and class objects are initialized by
their default constructors.
 If you provide too many initializers a compilation error
occurs.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.5.2 Initializing Built-In Arrays
 If a built-in array’s size is omitted from a declaration with
an initializer list, the compiler sizes the built-in array to
the number of elements in the initializer list.
 For example,
int n[]{50, 20, 30, 10, 40};
 creates a five-element array.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.5.3 Passing Built-In Arrays to Functions
 The value of a built-in array’s name is implicitly convertible
to the address of the built-in array’s first element.
◦ So arrayName is implicitly convertible to &arrayName[0].
 You don’t need to take the address (&) of a built-in array to
pass it to a function—you simply pass the built-in array’s
name.
 For built-in arrays, the called function can modify all the
elements of a built-in array in the caller—unless the
function precedes the corresponding built-in array
parameter with const to indicate that the elements should
not be modified.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.5.4 Declaring Built-In Array Parameters
 You can declare a built-in array parameter in a function
header, as follows:
int sumElements(const int values[], const size_t
numberOfElements)
 which indicates that the function’s first argument should
be a one-dimensional built-in array of ints that should
not be modified by the function.
 The preceding header can also be written as:
int sumElements(const int* values, const size_t
numberOfElements)

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.5.4 Declaring Built-In Array Parameters
 The compiler does not differentiate between a function
that receives a pointer and a function that receives a built-
in array.
◦ The function must “know” when it’s receiving a built-in array or
simply a single variable that’s being passed by reference.
 When the compiler encounters a function parameter for
a one-dimensional built-in array of the form const int
values[], the compiler converts the parameter to the
pointer notation const int* values.
◦ These forms of declaring a one-dimensional built-in array
parameter are interchangeable.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.5.5 C++11: Standard Library Functions
begin and end
 In Section 7.7, we showed how to sort an array object
with the C++ Standard Library function sort.
 We sorted an array of strings called colors as
follows:
// sort contents of colors
sort(colors.begin(), colors.end());
 The array class’s begin and end functions specified
that the entire array should be sorted.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.5.5 C++11: Standard Library Functions
begin and end
 Function sort (and many other C++ Standard Library
functions) can also be applied to built-in arrays.
 For example, to sort the built-in array n shown earlier in
this section, you can write:
// sort contents of built-in array n
sort(begin(n), end(n));
 C++11’s new begin and end functions (from
header <iterator>) each receive a built-in array
as an argument and return a pointer that can be
used to represent ranges of elements to process in
C++ Standard Library functions like sort.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.5.6 Built-In Array Limitations
 Built-in arrays have several limitations:
◦ They cannot be compared using the relational and
equality operators—you must use a loop to compare two
built-in arrays element by element.
◦ They cannot be assigned to one another.
◦ They don’t know their own size—a function that
processes a built-in array typically receives both the
built-in array’s name and its size as arguments.
◦ They don’t provide automatic bounds checking—you must
ensure that array-access expressions use subscripts that
are within the built-in array’s bounds.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.5.7 Built-In Arrays Sometimes Are
Required
 There are cases in which built-in arrays must be
used, such as processing a program’s command-
line arguments.
 You supply command-line arguments to a program
by placing them after the program’s name when
executing it from the command line. Such arguments
typically pass options to a program.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.5.7 Built-In Arrays Sometimes Are
Required
 On a Windows computer, the command
dir /p
 uses the /p argument to list the contents of the
current directory, pausing after each screen of
information.
 On Linux or OS X, the following command uses the
-la argument to list the contents of the current
directory with details about each file and
directory:
ls -la

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.6 Using const with Pointers
 Many possibilities exist for using (or not using)
const with function parameters.
 Principle of least privilege

◦ Always give a function enough access to the data in its

parameters to accomplish its specified task, but no more.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.6 Using const with Pointers (cont.)
 There are four ways to pass a pointer to a function
◦ a nonconstant pointer to nonconstant data
◦ a nonconstant pointer to constant data (Fig. 8.10)
◦ a constant pointer to nonconstant data (Fig. 8.11)
◦ a constant pointer to constant data (Fig. 8.12)
 Each combination provides a different level of
access privilege.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.6.1 Nonconstant Pointer to Nonconstant
Data
 The highest access is granted by a nonconstant
pointer to nonconstant data
◦ The data can be modified through the dereferenced pointer
◦ The pointer can be modified to point to other data.
 Such a pointer’s declaration (e.g., int* countPtr)
does not include const.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.6.2 Nonconstant Pointer to Constant
Data
 Nonconstant pointer to constant data
◦ A pointer that can be modified to point to any item of the
appropriate type
◦ The data to which it points cannot be modified through that pointer
 Sample declaration:
const int* countPtr;
◦ Read from right to left as “countPtr is a pointer to an integer
constant” or more precisely, “countPtr is a non-constant pointer to
an integer constant.”
 Figure 8.10 demonstrates GNU C++’s compilation error
message produced when attempting to compile a function
that receives a nonconstant pointer to constant data, then
tries to use that pointer to modify the data.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.6.3 Constant Pointer to Nonconstant
Data
 Constant pointer to nonconstant data
◦ always points to the same memory location
◦ the data at that location can be modified through the
pointer
 Pointers that are declared const must be initialized
when they’re declared.
 If the pointer is a function parameter, it’s initialized
with a pointer that’s passed to the function.
 Fig. 8.11 attempts to modify a constant pointer.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.6.4 Constant Pointer to Constant Data
 The minimum access privilege is granted by a constant
pointer to constant data.
◦ Such a pointer always points to the same memory location
◦ The data at that location cannot be modified via the pointer.
 This is how a built-in array should be passed to a function
that only reads from the built-in array, using array
subscript notation, and does not modify the built-in array.
 const int* const
◦ Read from right to left as “ptr is a constant pointer to an integer
constant.”
 Fig. 8.12 shows the Xcode LLVM compiler’s error messages
that are generated when an attempt is made to modify the
data to which ptr points and when an attempt is made to
modify the address stored in the pointer variable—these
show up on the lines of code with the errors in the Xcode text
editor.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.7 sizeof Operator
 The unary operator sizeof determines the size in
bytes of a built-in array or of any other data type,
variable or constant during program compilation.
 When applied to a built-in array’s name, as in Fig.

8.13, the sizeof operator returns the total number

of bytes in the built-in array as a value of type
size_t.
 When applied to a pointer parameter in a function

that receives a built-in array as an argument, the

sizeof operator returns the size of the pointer in
bytes—not the built-in array’s size.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.7 sizeof Operator (cont.)
 To determine the number of elements in the built-in
array numbers, use the following expression (which is
evaluated at compile time) :
 sizeof numbers / sizeof(numbers[0])
 The expression divides the number of bytes in numbers
by the number of bytes in the built-in array’s zeroth
element.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.7 sizeof Operator (cont.)
 Figure 8.14 uses sizeof to calculate the number of
bytes used to store many of the standard data types.
 The output was produced using the default settings

in Xcode 7.2 on Mac OS X.

 Type sizes are platform dependent.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.7 sizeof Operator (cont.)
 Operator sizeof can be applied to any expression
or type name.
 When sizeof is applied to a variable name (which

is not a built-in array’s name) or other expression,

the number of bytes used to store the specific type
of the expression is returned.
 The parentheses used with sizeof are required

only if a type name is supplied as its operand.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.8 Pointer Expressions and Pointer
Arithmetic
 Pointers are valid operands in arithmetic
expressions, assignment expressions and
comparison expressions.
 C++ enables pointer arithmetic—a few arithmetic

operations may be performed on pointers:

◦ increment (++)
◦ decremented (--)
◦ an integer may be added to a pointer (+ or +=)
◦ an integer may be subtracted from a pointer (- or -=)
◦ one pointer may be subtracted from another of the same
type—this particular operation is appropriate only for two
pointers that point to elements of the same built-in array
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.8 Pointer Expressions and Pointer
Arithmetic
 Assume that int v[5] has been declared and that
its first element is at memory location 3000.
 Assume that pointer vPtr has been initialized to

point to v[0] (i.e., the value of vPtr is 3000).

 Figure 8.15 diagrams this situation for a machine

with four-byte integers. Variable vPtr can be

initialized to point to v with either of the following
statements:
int* vPtr{v};
int* vPtr{&v[0]};

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.8.1 Adding Integers to and Subtracting Integers from Pointers

 In conventional arithmetic, the addition 3000 + 2

yields the value 3002.
◦ This is normally not the case with pointer arithmetic.
◦ When an integer is added to, or subtracted from, a
pointer, the pointer is not simply incremented or
decremented by that integer, but by that integer times the
size of the memory object to which the pointer refers.
◦ The number of bytes depends on the memory object’s
data type.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.8.1 Adding Integers to and Subtracting
Integers from Pointers
 vPtr += 2;
◦ would produce 3008 (from the calculation 3000 + 2 *
4), assuming that an int is stored in four bytes of memory.
 In the built-in array v, vPtr would now point to
v[2] (Fig. 8.16).
 If an integer is stored in eight bytes of memory, then

the preceding calculation would result in memory

location 3016 (3000 + 2 * 8).

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.8.3 Subtracting Pointers
 Pointer variables pointing to the same built-in array
may be subtracted from one another.
 For example, if vPtr contains the address 3000 and

v2Ptr contains the address 3008, the statement

x = v2Ptr - vPtr;
 would assign to x the number of built-in array
elements from vPtr to v2Ptr—in this case, 2.
 Pointer arithmetic is meaningful only on a pointer

that points to a built-in array.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.8.3 Pointer Assignment
 A pointer can be assigned to another pointer if both
pointers are of the same type.
 Otherwise, a cast operator (normally a

reinterpret_cast; discussed in Section 14.7)

must be used to convert the value of the pointer on
the right of the assignment to the pointer type on
the left of the assignment.
◦ Exception to this rule is the pointer to void (i.e., void*).
 Any pointer to a fundamental type or class type can
be assigned to a pointer of type void* without
casting.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.8.4 Cannot Dereference a void*
 A void* pointer cannot be dereferenced.
 The compiler “knows” that an int* points to four

bytes of memory on a machine with four-byte

integers—dereferencing an int* creates an lvalue
that is an alias for the int’s four bytes in memory.
 A void* simply contains a memory address for an

unknown data type.

◦ You cannot dereference a void* because the compiler does
not know the type of the data to which the pointer refers
and thus not the number of bytes.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.8.5 Comparing Pointers
 Pointers can be compared using equality and
relational operators.
◦ Comparisons using relational operators are meaningless
unless the pointers point to elements of the same built-in
array.
◦ Pointer comparisons compare the addresses stored in the
pointers.
 A common use of pointer comparison is
determining whether a pointer has the value
nullptr, 0 or NULL (i.e., the pointer does not point
to anything).

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.9 Relationship Between Pointers and
Built-In Arrays
 Pointers can be used to do any operation involving array
subscripting.
 Assume the following declarations:
// create 5-element int array b; b is a const pointer
int b[5];
// create int pointer bPtr, which isn't a const pointer
int* bPtr;

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.9 Relationship Between Pointers and
Built-In Arrays
 We can set bPtr to the address of the first element in the
built-in array b with the statement
// assign address of built-in array b to bPtr
bPtr = b;
 This is equivalent to assigning the address of the first
element as follows:
// also assigns address of built-in array b to bPtr
bPtr = &b[0];

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.9.1 Pointer/Offset Notation
 Built-in array element b[3] can alternatively be
referenced with the pointer expression
 *(bPtr + 3)
 The 3 in the preceding expression is the offset to the
pointer.
 This notation is referred to as pointer/offset

notation.
◦ The parentheses are necessary, because the precedence of
* is higher than that of +.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.9 Relationship Between Pointers and
Built-In Arrays (cont.)
 Just as the built-in array element can be referenced with
a pointer expression, the address
 &b[3]
 can be written with the pointer expression
 bPtr + 3

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.9.2 Pointer/Offset Notation with the
Built-In Array’s Name as the Pointer
 The built-in array name can be treated as a pointer and
used in pointer arithmetic.
 For example, the expression
 *(b + 3)
 also refers to the element b[3].
 In general, all subscripted built-in array expressions can
be written with a pointer and an offset.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.9.3 Pointer/Subscript Notation
 Pointers can be subscripted exactly as built-in
arrays can.
 For example, the expression
 bPtr[1]
 refers to b[1]; this expression uses
pointer/subscript notation.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.9.4 Demonstrating the Relationship
Between Pointers and Built-In Arrays
 Figure 8.17 uses the four notations we just
discussed
◦ array subscript notation
◦ pointer/offset notation with the built-in array’s name as a
pointer
◦ pointer subscript notation
◦ pointer/offset notation with a pointer
 to accomplish the same task, namely displaying the
four elements of the built-in array of ints named b.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.10 Pointer-Based Strings
 This section introduces C-style, pointer-based
strings, which we’ll simply call C strings.
 C++’s string class is preferred

◦ it eliminates many of the security problems that can be

caused by manipulating C strings.
 We cover C strings for a deeper understanding of
arrays, and because there are some cases in which C
string processing is required.
 Also, if you work with legacy C and C++ programs,

you’re likely to encounter pointer-based strings.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.10 Pointer-Based Strings (cont.)
Characters and Character Constants
 Characters are the fundamental building blocks of C++
source programs.
 Character constant
◦ An integer value represented as a character in single
quotes.
◦ The value of a character constant is the integer value of
the character in the machine’s character set.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.10 Pointer-Based Strings (cont.)
Strings
 A string is a series of characters treated as a
single unit.
◦ May include letters, digits and various special
characters such as +, -, *, /and $.
 String
literals, or string constants, in C++
are written in double quotation marks

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.10 Pointer-Based Strings (cont.)
Pointer-Based Strings
 A pointer-based string is a built-in array of
characters ending with a null character ('\
0').
 A string is accessed via a pointer to its first
character.
 The sizeof a string literal is the length of
the string including the terminating null
character.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.10 Pointer-Based Strings (cont.)
String Literals as Initializers
 A string literal may be used as an initializer in the
declaration of either a built-in array of chars or a
variable of type const char*.
 String literals exist for the duration of the program
and may be shared if the same string literal is
referenced from multiple locations in a program.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.10 Pointer-Based Strings (cont.)
Character Constants as Initializers
 When declaring a built-in array of chars to contain
a string, the built-in array must be large enough to
store the string and its terminating null character.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8.10 Pointer-Based Strings (cont.)
Accessing Characters in a C String
 Because a C string is a built-in array of characters,

we can access individual characters in a string

directly with array subscript notation.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.10 Pointer-Based Strings (cont.)
Reading Strings into Built-In Arrays of char with
cin
 A string can be read into a built-in array of chars

using stream extraction with cin.

 The setw stream manipulator can be used to ensure

that the string read into word does not exceed the
size of the built-in array.
◦ Applies only to the next value being input.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.10 Pointer-Based Strings (cont.)
Reading Lines of Text into Built-In Arrays of char with
cin.getline
 In some cases, it’s desirable to input an entire line of text
into a built-in array of chars.
 For this purpose, the cin object provides the member
function getline, which takes three arguments—a
built-in array of chars in which the line of text will be
stored, a length and a delimiter character.
 The function stops reading characters when the
delimiter character '\n' is encountered, when the end-
of-file indicator is entered or when the number of
characters read so far is one less than the length
specified in the second argument.
 The third argument to cin.getline has '\n' as a
default value.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.10 Pointer-Based Strings (cont.)
Displaying C Strings
 A built-in array of chars representing a null-

terminated string can be output with cout and <<.

 The characters are output until a terminating null

character is encountered; the null character is not

displayed.
 cin and cout assume that built-in arrays of chars

should be processed as strings terminated by null

characters; cin and cout do not provide similar
input and output processing capabilities for other
built-in array types.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.10 Pointer-Based Strings (cont.)
Displaying C Strings
 A built-in array of chars representing a null-

terminated string can be output with cout and <<.

 The characters are output until a terminating null

character is encountered; the null character is not

displayed.
 cin and cout assume that built-in arrays of chars

should be processed as strings terminated by null

characters; cin and cout do not provide similar
input and output processing capabilities for other
built-in array types.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8.11 Note About Smart Pointers
 Later in the book, we introduce dynamic memory
management with pointers, which allows you at
execution time to create and destroy objects as
needed.
 Improperly managing this process is a source of

subtle errors.
 We’ll discuss “smart pointers,” which help you avoid

dynamic memory management errors by providing

additional functionality beyond that of built-in
pointers.

©1992-2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.