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From: francus@cheshire.columbia.edu (Yoseff Francus)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: char (*a)[]  (was: Style [++i vs i++])
Message-ID: <4928@columbia.edu>
Date: Mon, 24-Aug-87 09:03:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: columbia.4928
Posted: Mon Aug 24 09:03:25 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Aug-87 04:28:58 EDT
References: <8942@brl-adm.ARPA>
Sender: nobody@columbia.edu
Reply-To: francus@cheshire.columbia.edu.UUCP (Yoseff Francus)
Organization: Columbia University CS Department
Lines: 41

In article <8942@brl-adm.ARPA> DHowell.ElSegundo@Xerox.COM writes:
>I'm confused.
>
>Suppose I declare:
>
>char (*a)[10];
>char b[10];
>
>Now b is an array of size 10 of char, and a is a pointer to an array of
>size 10 of char.  So this means I should be able to say:
>
>a = &b;
>
>However, as I understand it, b is actually &b[0], which means a gets set
>to &&b[0], which I'm not sure makes any sense at all.
>
>What exactly does a point to?  Does it point to the first element of an
>array? Does it point to a descriptor of an array?  How would I assign
>anything useful to a, if I can't use the above type of assignment?  Or
>is the assignment valid?  If so what is the meaning of &b?
>
>Dan <DHowell.ElSegundo@Xerox.COM>

Since b is the name of an array it is considered to be a constant, and
you cannot use the & operator on a constant. The assignement you
want is simply 

a = b;

Be careful though, since a++ will not move to the next character, but
rather will jump forward by 10*sizeof(char).



******************************************************************
yf
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree
But only if the NFL to a franchise would agree.

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