Common Mistakes When Working With Pointer

Suppose there is a pointer variable *p points the variable a then we can write:

int c, *pc;

// pc is address but c is not
pc = c; // Error

// &c is address but *pc is not
*pc = &c; // Error

// both &c and pc are addresses
pc = &c;

// both c and *pc values 
*pc = c;

1. pc = c means “pc” is address but “c” is not address. Here “c” is a variable.
2. *pc = &c means “*pc” is variable that points the value of “c” not address.
3. pc = &c means both “pc” and “c” are addresses.
4. *pc = c means both “*pc” and “c” refers to values.

So when beginner’s writing code in pointer they have some confusion arises in mind:

#include <stdio.h>
int main() 
{
   int c = 5;
   int *p = &c;

   printf("%d", *p);  
   return 0; 
}

Output:
*p = 5

So, why we didn’t get any error message when writing int *p = &c?

Because we can’t get error,

int *p = &c;

is equivalent to

int *p;
p = &c;

In both the cases we are using pointer “p” and assigning the address “(&c)” on it.

So, to avoid the confusion we are using the statement like this.

int *p = &c;

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