Pointer with Array
It is most likely that you would not understand this chapter until you go through the chapter related C++ Pointers.
So assuming you have bit understanding on pointers in C++, let us start: An array name is a constant pointer to the first element of the array. Therefore, in the declaration:
double balance[50];
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balance is a pointer to &balance[0], which is the address of the first element of the array balance. Thus, the following program fragment assigns p the address of the first element of balance:
double *p;
double balance[10];
p = balance;
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Once you store the address of first element in p, you can access array elements using *p, *(p+1), *(p+2) and so on. Below is the example to show all the concepts discussed above:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main ()
{
// an array with 5 elements.
double balance[5] = {1000.0, 2.0, 3.4, 17.0, 50.0};
double *p;
p = balance;
// output each array element's value
cout << "Array values using pointer " << endl;
for ( int i = 0; i < 5; i++ )
{
cout << "*(p + " << i << ") : ";
cout << *(p + i) << endl;
}
cout << "Array values using balance as address " << endl;
for ( int i = 0; i < 5; i++ )
{
cout << "*(balance + " << i << ") : ";
cout << *(balance + i) << endl;
}
return 0;
OUTPUT
Array values using pointer
*(p + 0) : 1000
*(p + 1) : 2
*(p + 2) : 3.4
*(p + 3) : 17
*(p + 4) : 50
Array values using balance as address
*(balance + 0) : 1000
*(balance + 1) : 2
*(balance + 2) : 3.4
*(balance + 3) : 17
*(balance + 4) : 50
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