Pointer

Generally a pointer is one which points to something.In program, it means which points the memory address of a variable.

Syntax:
data-type *pointer-name = &variable-name;

Example:

int a;
int *p;
p=&a;

Here p is int type pointer that means it can point a memory address of int type variable. Data type of pointer and pointing variable must be matched. An int type can’t point a variable of float type.

float a;
int *p;
p=&a;

is invalid

A pointer points to a memory address – evidence by code
We can see the memory address created for a variable can be shown by “%u” format specifier.
Code Example:

#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
   int a;
   int *p;
   p=&a;
   printf("Address of a = %u\n",&a);
   printf("Address of a = %u\n",p);
}

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