Lecture Outline

 Addresses and Pointers

 The Address-of Operator &

 Pointers and Arrays

 Pointers and Functions

 Pointers and C-Type Strings

 Memory Management: new and delete 458

 Pointers to Objects

 A Linked List Example

 Pointers to Pointers

 A Parsing Example

 Simulation: A Horse Race

 UML State Diagrams

 Debugging Pointers
Introduction
 What are pointers for? Here are some common uses:

 Accessing array elements

 Passing arguments to a function when the function

needs to modify the original argument

 Passing arrays and strings to functions

 Obtaining memory from the system

 Creating data structures such as linked lists

Addresses and Pointers
 Every byte in the computer’s memory has an address.

 Addresses are numbers, just as they are for houses on a

street.

 The numbers start at 0 and go up from there—1, 2, 3,

and so on.

 If you have 1MB of memory, the highest address is

1,048,575.
Addresses and Pointers
The Address-of Operator &
Out Put
Pointer Variables
Working
Types of Pointers
Accessing the Variable Pointed To
Manipulating Values
Summary so far
Void Pointer
Converting pointers
Pointers and Arrays
Pointers and Arrays
Explanation
Pointer Constants & Pointer Variables
Passing Simple Variables
Working
Passing Arrays
Sorting Array Elements
OutPut
Sorting
The Bubble Sort
Bubble Sort
Pointers to String Constants
Strings as Function Arguments
Copying String Using Pointe
The const Modifier and Pointers
 const int* cptrInt;
//cptrInt is a pointer to constant int
you cannot change the value of whatever cptrInt points to,
although you can change cptrInt itself.

 int* const ptrcInt;

//ptrcInt is a constant pointer to int
you can change what ptrcInt points to, but you cannot
change the value of ptrcInt itself.

 char* strcpy(char* dest, const char* src);

 Arrays of Pointers to Strings
// ptrtostr.cpp
// an array of pointers to strings
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

const int DAYS = 7; //number of pointers in array
int main()
{ //array of pointers to char
char* arrptrs[DAYS] = { “Sunday”, “Monday”, “Tuesday”,
“Wednesday”, “Thursday”,
“Friday”, “Saturday” };

for(int j=0; j<DAYS; j++) //display every string

cout << arrptrs[j] << endl;

return 0;

}
Memory Management:
new and delete

 cin >> size; // get size from user

 int arr[size]; // error; array size must be a constant

// newintro.cpp
// introduces operator new

The new Operator

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring> //for strlen

using namespace std;

int main()
{
char* str = “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”;
int len = strlen(str); //get length of str
char* ptr; //make a pointer to char
ptr = new char[len+1]; //set aside memory: string + ‘\0’
strcpy(ptr, str); //copy str to new memory area ptr
cout << “ptr=” << ptr << endl; //show that ptr is now in str
delete[] ptr; //release ptr’s memory
return 0;
}