Pointers to Pointers

POINTERS TO POINTERS

The concept of pointers can be further extended. Pointer we know is a variable which contains address of another variable. Now this variable itself could be another pointer. These we now have a pointer which contains another pointer’s address. The following example should make this point clear.


main ()
{

int i = 3 ;

int * j ;

int * * k ;

j = & i ;

k = & j ;

printf (“\n address of i = % \d”, & i );

printf (“\n address of i = % \d”, j );

printf (“\n address of i = % \d”, * k );

printf (“\n address of j = % \d”, & j );

printf (“\n address of j = % \d”, k );

printf (“\n address of k = % \d”, & k );

printf (“\n address of k = % \d”, &k );

}

In this program i is an integer type value, j is a pointer to this variable and k is another pointer type variable pointing to j.

i j k

3 6485 3276

6485 3276 7234

All the addresses are assumed addresses K is pointing to the variable j. These K is a pointer to pointer. In principle, there could be a pointer to a pointer’s pointer, of a pointer to a pointer to a pointer’s pointer. There is no limit on how far can we go on extending this definition.