288 char* and char[] are different types, but it's not immediately apparent in all cases. This is because arrays decay into pointers, meaning that if an expression of type char[] is provided where one of type char* is expected, the compiler automatically converts the array into a pointer to its first element.
What is the difference between char array and char pointer in C?
The char type can only represent a single character. When you have a sequence of characters, they are piled next to each other in memory, and the location of the first character in that sequence is returned (assigned to test). Test is nothing more than a pointer to the memory location of the first character in "testing", saying that the type it points to is a char.
Technically, the char* is not an array, but a pointer to a char. Similarly, char** is a pointer to a char*. Making it a pointer to a pointer to a char. C and C++ both define arrays behind-the-scenes as pointer types, so yes, this structure, in all likelihood, is array of arrays of char s, or an array of strings.
Difference between char* and char [] Asked 14 years, 7 months ago Modified 4 years, 10 months ago Viewed 73k times
I would like to understand how pointers work, so i created this small program. first of all i create a p pointer, which points to a char. The first question is at this point. If i create a pointe...
The variables with the * are pointers. A 'normal' variable, for example a char or an int, contains the value of that datatype itself - the variable can hold a character, or an integer. A pointer is a special kind of variable; it doesn't hold the value itself, it contains the address of a value in memory. For example, a char * doesn't directly contain a character, but it contains the address of ...