Unit-4 Pointers

Pointer to Pointer:

A pointer to a pointer is a form of multiple indirection, or a chain of pointers. Normally, a pointer contains the address of a variable. When we define a pointer to a pointer, the first pointer contains the address of the second pointer, which points to the location that contains the actual value as shown below.

A variable that is a pointer to a pointer must be declared as such. This is done by placing an additional asterisk in front of its name. For example, following is the declaration to declare a pointer to a pointer of type int:

int **var;

When a target value is indirectly pointed to by a pointer to a pointer, accessing that value requires that the asterisk operator be applied twice, as is shown below in the example:

#include

int main ()

{

   int  var;

   int  *ptr;

   int  **pptr;

   var = 3000;

   /* take the address of var */

   ptr = &var;

   /* take the address of ptr using address of operator & */

   pptr = &ptr;

   /* take the value using pptr */

   printf("Value of var = %d\n", var );

   printf("Value available at *ptr = %d\n", *ptr );

   printf("Value available at **pptr = %d\n", **pptr);

   return 0;

}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

Value of var = 3000

Value available at *ptr = 3000

Value available at **pptr = 3000