Arrays and Pointers

Lecture 1 - Slide 19 : 34

Arrays and Pointers

Arrays and pointers are closely related in C

The compiler translates all array notations to pointer notation

Array basics in C
- Consecutive memory, elements of same type, fixed size after allocation, size known by the compiler
- 0-based indexing, subscripting a[i], no range checking
Array limitations in C
- Cannot be assigned to each other, cannot be passed by value, cannot be returned by value
- In other words: value semantics is not used for arrays in C
Strings in C
- A string is zero terminated, mutable char array
- of type char[] or char*
- "string-literals" - denoted with double quotes
- Supported <string.h> standard library

C++ supports a type parameterized class vector, and a class string, both with value semantic