Pointer Variable Declarations and Initialization

Pointer variables contain memory addresses as their values. Normally, a variable directly contains a specific value. However, a pointer contains the memory address of a variable that, in turn, contains a specific value. In this sense, a variable name directly references a value, and a pointer indirectly references a value (Fig. 8.1). Referencing a value through a pointer is often called indirection. Note that diagrams typically represent a pointer as an arrow from the variable that contains an address to the variable located at that address in memory.

Figure 8.1. Directly and indirectly referencing a variable.

Pointers, like any other variables, must be declared before they can be used. For example, for the pointer in Fig. 8.1, the declaration

int *countPtr, count;

declares the variable countPtr to be of type int * (i.e., a pointer to an int value) and is read, "countPtr is a pointer to int" or "countPtr points to an object of type int." Also, variable count in the preceding declaration is declared to be an int, not a pointer to an int. The * in the declaration applies only to countPtr. Each variable being declared as a pointer must be preceded by an asterisk (*). For example, the declaration

double *xPtr, *yPtr;

indicates that both xPtr and yPtr are pointers to double values. When * appears in a declaration, it is not an operator; rather, it indicates that the variable being declared is a pointer. Pointers can be declared to point to objects of any data type.

Common Programming Error 8.1

Assuming that the * used to declare a pointer distributes to all variable names in a declaration's comma-separated list of variables can lead to errors. Each pointer must be declared with the * prefixed to the name (either with or without a space in betweenthe compiler ignores the space). Declaring only one variable per declaration helps avoid these types of errors and improves program readability.

Good Programming Practice 8.1

Although it is not a requirement, including the letters Ptr in pointer variable names makes it clear that these variables are pointers and that they must be handled appropriately.

Pointers should be initialized either when they are declared or in an assignment. A pointer may be initialized to 0, NULL or an address. A pointer with the value 0 or NULL points to nothing and is known as a null pointer. Symbolic constant NULL is defined in header file (and in several other standard library header files) to represent the value 0. Initializing a pointer to NULL is equivalent to initializing a pointer to 0, but in C++, 0 is used by convention. When 0 is assigned, it is converted to a pointer of the appropriate type. The value 0 is the only integer value that can be assigned directly to a pointer variable without casting the integer to a pointer type first. Assigning a variable's numeric address to a pointer is discussed in Section 8.3.

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Error-Prevention Tip 8.1

Initialize pointers to prevent pointing to unknown or uninitialized areas of memory.