Re: Pointer Question

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The second example assigns to the pointer itself, making it point to
something valid.

char *pChar = "Hello";

So this assigns "Hello" to the pointer... but I thought a pointer just held
the 'address' of something, not an actual value?

It does not assign "Hello" to the pointer - a pointer holds an address.
In this case, pChar points to the address of "Hello", because "Hello"
is a char array.

In that case, why cant you do this -

int *pInt = 10;

This is illegal. If you would really want to set *pInt, you would have
to write it this way:

int *pInt = (int *)10;

This is legal, but will result in having a pointer pointing at address
10. Before using memory you should always make sure it is assigned
first (heap or stack):

int *pInt = new int; // Don't forget to delete pInt when you're done
with it
// or
int value; // value has valid allocated memory but an undefined value
int *pInt = &value;
// then
*pInt = 10;

pInt is now pointing to a valid memory location and that memory
location contains the value 10.

Regards,
Dan.

.

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