What happens when you try to assign an array to a pointer without using the & operator? Provide an example to illustrate.
What Happens When You Assign an Array to a Pointer Without Using the & Operator?
When you try to assign an array to a pointer without using the & operator, the compiler will implicitly add the & operator for you. This is because the name of an array is actually a pointer to the first element of the array.
Example, the following code:
C-Programming
int arr[5] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
int *ptr = arr;is equivalent to the following code:
C- Programming
int arr[5] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
int *ptr = &arr[0];The & operator is used to get the address of a variable. In this case, the address of the first element of the array is being assigned to the pointer.
It is important to note that you cannot assign an array to a pointer of a different type. For example, the following code will not compile:
C-Programming
int arr[5] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
char *ptr = arr;
This is because the pointer ptr is of type char *, which can only point to an array of characters. The array arr is of type int *, which can only point to an array of integers.