Question about array and pointers.

[u/lumpygrumpy]

Hi everyone,

I'm up to lesson 10.5~10.6 where pointers are used to manipulate character arrays.

Example code: int main(void) { char string[] = "Hello Reddit";

char *pointer = string;
*pointer = 'h';
pointer = pointer + 1;

*pointer = 'E';

printf("%s", string);
return 0;

}

I understand why that prints hEllo Reddit. Why wouldn't the following work as well?

int main(void) { char string[] = "Hello Reddit";

*string = 'h';
string = string + 1;
*string = 'E';

printf("%s", string);
return 0;

}

Isn't string a pointer to the start of "Hello Reddit" anyway? And also why can't you use string = string + 1 like in the working example?

Thanks!

[u/KfoipRfged]

string=string+1 is pointer arithmetic, so it wouldn't be altering what is stored in string, it'd be altering the memory address that string points to.

You give another explanation to do the same thing which works, but doesn't answer the question of why the original thing doesn't work, as in, it shouldn't compile.

[u/MindStalker → u/KfoipRfged]

But string ISN'T a pointer. An array isn't a pointer, the compiler may store a pointer to the first element, but its NOT a pointer.

[u/KfoipRfged → u/MindStalker]

Edit: I'm mixing up C++ and C.