c++ – pointer logic

Question:

In C++ you can do the following:

int variavel[10][10];
int** variavel;

But what about when I want to create a 2d array, where I can have the first part "unlimited" and the second part with a limit?

tipo ponteiro nova_variavel[limite]

And the "inverse"?

tipo nova_variavel[limite] ponteiro

For example:

int* a[5]; //Ponteiro de arrays

Or

std::vector<int*> a; //Array de ponteiros

char* A[6];
A[1] = "Hello,";
A[2] = " World";
std::array<char*,2> a;
a[1] = "Hello,";
a[2] = "World!"; // <- Repare 1 caractere a mais. É pouco, mas pode fazer diferença.

Answer:

Arrays and pointers are quite different concepts. A pointer has nothing to do with an "unlimited array". Come on:

int lista[10][10];

Here you are declaring a two-dimensional array with 100 elements. The name of this array is lista . When you write lista[4][2] you access an element and that results in an int . However if you just write lista in your expression, that is, when you try to access the array by name, it will decay into a pointer to the first element. The detail here is that it is not possible to represent the array type directly, it will decay into a pointer whenever requested. You can then do the following:

int lista[10][10];
int* ponteiro1 = lista; // ponteiro1 é &lista[0][0]
int* ponteiro2 = lista[3]; // ponteiro2 é &lista[3][0]

Now when you do the following

int** ponteiro;

It's just creating a pointer that points to a pointer that points to an int . There are no arrays here. The ponteiro[2][3] notation that is possible represents a bit of algebra with pointers, being equivalent to *(*(ponteiro+2)+3) . This may not even result in a valid memory location.

Yet another possibility:

int* lista2[10]; // array de ponteiros

Here you have a simple one-dimensional list, whose element is an int* pointer.

The last notation of your question ( tipo nova_variavel[limite] ponteiro ) would have the objective of creating a pointer named nova_variavel that points to an array of limite elements of type tipo ? In this case its definition is written like this:

int (*variavel)[10]; // ponteiro de arrays

Not so intuitive, perhaps. An example:

int main() {
    int array[10] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10};
    int (*ponteiro_para_array)[10] = &array;
    cout << (*ponteiro_para_array)[5] << endl; // mostra 6
}

One way to avoid these complications when declaring a variable with an unusual type is to name each part of its type. For example (C++11):

using int10 = int[10]; // Cria um alias para a array de 10 ints
int10* variavel; // Exatamente o mesmo que a declaração anterior
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