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cpointersexpressionindirectionaddressof

Pointers: a query about pointers

I'm learning C and C#. I'm learning about pointers and don't know what it means to combine the indirection operator and the address operator. What does it mean to combine the two?

Here is an example:

    int *p, *q;
    p = *&q;
Solution

  • & can be thought of as an address of (<something>) operator. So &q is address of q. Now * can be thought of as an value at (<something>) operator. So *q is basically the value stored at the address contained in q, i.e, * treats the variable as always containing an address. Now *&q, by associativity is *(&q). Which means

    value stored at (address of q) which is same as value stored at q

    address of q will be having another address since q is a pointer. So it is the same as

    p=q