Patrick Dughi wrote:
> So, if we take the address of 'p', it will be 5, and if we
> evaluate 'p' it will equal 'memory space 1'. Our c-compiler is smart
> enough to realize that when we try to evaluate a pointer, we actually want
> the contents of the memory box it points to.
No, it's not, you have to explicitly dereference a pointer to get that
so you would have to use *p rather than p.
> Thus, p = mem[1]='h'. If
> we add 1 to p, though, we're changing the contents of the memory space 1 -
> it goes from 'h' to 'i'. Now, p = mem[1] = 'i'.
>
Nope, you'll be incrementing the pointer p so that p will point to space
2 which is 'i'.
> What if we wanted p to just go to the next box? Well we add 1 to
> *p!
Wrong again, to do that you want to add 1 to p, if you add 1 to *p then
p will still point to space 1 and the value in space 1 will be
incremented from 'h' to 'i'.
> Let's do that, so now p = mem[2] = 'i'. Same letter as mem[1], but
> in a different place;
>
> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
> |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
> | 'i' | 'i' | '\0'| ? | 2 | ? | ? | ? |
> |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
>
If you first added 1 to p then you added 1 to *p you would end up with
this...
> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
> |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
> | 'h' | 'j' | '\0'| ? | 2 | ? | ? | ? |
> |-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
> So, a pointer only takes up one box, and describes the address
> of other places in memory.
Actually the amount of space a pointer takes up is
implementation-defined. I think that most modern implementations use 32
bit pointers but it could be more, or less. You best bet is to not
write code that depends on the size of a pointer.
> Now, lets look at a character string like
> s[5]="". What this does is define a space in memory.. it may look like
> this;
s[5]=""; is an assignment to a pointer, what it does is create a
constant string which is empty (looks like this)...
| '\0' |
and sets a pointer (stored in s[5]) to the start of that string. This
is, of course, assuming that you did this at the top of the function
somewhere to create an array of character pointers...
char *s[6];
the following is a declaration that reservs 5 chars of memory space and
sets it to the empty string...
char s[5]="";
The resulting memory would look like this...
| '\0' | ? | ? | ? | ? |
> Now, if we copy the word 'hello' into our s character array, we
> get this:
>
You get a buffer overrun because you allocated space for 5 characters
and "hello" actually uses 6 as follows...
| 'h' | 'e' | 'l' | 'l' | 'o' | '\0' |
> The thing is, the variable 's' can be used just like the pointer
> up above. It is a pointer after all.
no, it's not. it can be used like a pointer in some ways, and in some
ways it cannot. For example you cannot change the value of s to make it
point to something else.
> s[2] actually means take the
> address of s and add 2 to it .. ie *s + 2.
Close, try *(s + 2)
> Just be careful though, if you
> pass that s[] variable to a function as a *s, you won't be able to use
> your array subscripting to access it. s[] can be converted to *s, but not
> the other way around.
>
It is perfectly valid to access a pointer as an array.
> Now, here's where we get to your question;
>
> how is
>
> char *to_vict = NULL, *to_room = NULL;
> or
> const char *to_vict = NULL, *to_room = NULL;
>
> any different from
>
> char to_victim[MAX_STRING_LENGTH] = "";
> char to_char[MAX_STRING_LENGTH] = "";
>
> Well, there you have it. Since I happen to know that these
> strings are already allocated (they're static actually which makes them
> even more optimized), all we _need_ is a pointer to them. They don't
> change (thus, const is justified - it means 'memory pointed to by this
> pointer is not supposd to change via this pointer. compiler error if it
> does'). If you allocate memory for them though, it will still work.
> However, that pointer of 'to_victim[max_string_length]' which points to a
> max_string_length size of allocated memory will be blown away - it will
> quickly be set to point not to that memory, but the static string.
Actually it won't even compile because the compiler won't let you change
the location where it points to.
> * - yes, i know, it grows the otherway maybe, there's seperate areas,
> blahblahblah. It's simplified. Deal.
>
It's wrong. Deal.
Regards, Peter
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