Operation on pointers

Pointer is a variable which holds the address of another variable that it points to an address in a memory. The following arithmetic operations are valid to be performed on pointers.

• Assignment Operator(=)
• Increment Operator(++)
• Decrement Operator(–)
• Addition(+)
• Subtraction(-)
• Comparision Operator(==, <, >, !=, <=, >=)

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
 {
   int myarray[5] = {2, 4,6, 8,10};
   int* myptr = NULL;
   myptr = myarray;
   printf("\n First element in the array :%d", *myptr);
   myptr ++;
   printf("\n Next element in the array :%d", *myptr);
   myptr +=1;
   printf("\n Next element in the array :%d", *myptr);
   myptr--;
   printf("\n Previous element in the array :%d", *myptr);
   myptr -= 1;
   printf("\n Previous element in the array :%d", *myptr);
  
   return 0;
 }

Output:

First element in the array :2
Next element in the array :4
Next element in the array :6
Previous element in the array :4
Previous element in the array :2

Note that the increment operator ++ increments the pointer and points to the next element in the array. Similarly, the decrement operator decrements the pointer variable by 1 so that it points to the previous element in the array.

We also use + and – operators. First, we have added 1 to the pointer variable. The result shows that it points to the next element in the array. Similarly, – operator makes the pointer variable to point to the previous element in the array.

Apart from these arithmetic operators, we can also use comparison operators like ==, < and > but multiplication or division operator cannot be used.

Relevant Posts:

• Pointer arithmetic and address arithmetic

---

‹ INDEX OF C LANGUAGE

NULL AND void POINTER ›

---

Categories: C Language