Pointer variable in C Language

Definition : A variable which holds address of another variable or obtained memory address is called a pointer variable. In other worlds, pointer variable is a variable which holds pointer value

(i.e. , address of a variable)

For example, if I is a variable and address of I is stored in a variable p as shown below:

P=&I;

Then the variable p is called a pointer variable. The memory organization after executing the above statement is shown below:

Variable	Address	Memory Locations
	0
	2
	4	100
I	……..	200
J	65534	300
K
variables	address	Values

                                                    Physical representation

Logical representation

Note that the address of a variable I which is 65535 is assigned to variable p. So, even though address of p is 50000 (pointer value), the value stored in that location is 65534. Since p is a variable which constants address of a variable, the variable p is called pointer variable. In the logical representation, the variable p points to the variable i. So, we say that the variable p points to I and hence the name pointer. The relationship between p and I is pictorially represented as shown below:

If we use the statement: p = &j; then the variable p constants the address of a variable j.