Pointers are used everywhere in C, so if you want to use the C language fully you have to have a very good understanding of pointers. In this tutorial we will learn to use pointers with array of structure variable in C programming language. As a structure is a value type, pointers can be used with them, but there is one caveat with this, the structure must not contain any reference types if you plan to use pointers. Declaration and Intialisation of Pointers. Pointers are declared in pretty much the same way we declare variables in C++. So be patient. A pointer is a type of variable. The goal of this section and the next several that follow is to help you build a complete understanding of pointers and how C uses them. For most people it takes a little time and some practice to become fully comfortable with … How to pass […] A pointer is nothing more than a variable that holds the address in memory of another variable. But in C# pointer can only be declared to hold the memory address of value types and arrays. Although pointers provide us this powerful feature of accessing the memory, however, we must be careful while using them. For most people it will take some time to fully understand pointers. at run time. As such, it can easily be flung off to a function in C programming. Once you master the use of pointers, you will use them everywhere. They have to become comfortable for you. A bit later, we will see how to declare and use pointers. For example, using pointers is one way to have a function modify a variable passed to it. So, in the previous tutorial we learned how to create pointers for structure variable.. Let us now go ahead and create an array of structure variable and work with it via pointer variable. Pointers are the heart of C programming. Unlike reference types, pointer types are not tracked by the default garbage collection mechanism. It provides power and flexibility to the language. It can be used to store an address of any variable. Below are some advantages of pointers. It is the most distinct feature of C, which provides power and flexibility to C. Pointers separates C from other programming languages. Even more thrilling, a pointer can wander back from a function as a return value. Pointers are one of the most distinct and exciting features of C language. NULL pointer points the base address of the segment. Pointers give greatly possibilities to 'C' functions which we are limited to return one value. A C# pointer is nothing but a variable that holds the memory address of another type. Incorrect use of pointers can effect the program in inexplicable and complex ways. A Pointer in C is used to allocate memory dynamically i.e. Pointers in C language is a variable that stores/points the address of another variable. Pointers are said to "point to" the variable whose address they store. A void pointer is created by using the keyword void. Void Pointer. It is also possible to use pointers to dynamically allocate memory, which means that you can write programs that can handle nearly unlimited amounts of data on the fly--you don't need to know, when you write the program, how much memory you need. Far Pointer; Huge Pointers; List Of Pointers In C Programming. In case, if you don’t have address to be assigned to pointer then you can simply use NULL; Pointer which is initialized with NULL value is considered as a NULL pointer. With pointer parameters, our functions now can process actual data rather than a copy of data. Pointers are a very powerful feature of the language that has many uses in lower level programming. Although pointers may appear a little confusing and complicated in the beginning, but trust me, once you understand the concept, you will be able to do so much more with C language. C programmers make extensive use of pointers, because of their numerous benefits. Oftentimes, these tricks are the only ways to get information to or from to a function. In C programming, a void pointer is also called as a generic pointer. In C#, pointers can only be used on value types and arrays. It does not have any standard data type. 1. Null Pointer NULL Pointer is a pointer which is pointing to nothing. You have to learn pointers because they are used everywhere in the C language. Following program illustrates the use of a void pointer: Dereference operator (*) As just seen, a variable which stores the address of another variable is called a pointer.