Chapter 9, Problem 60RQE

Program Plan Intro

Pointer:

Pointer will allow the user to indirectly access and manipulate the variable data contents. A pointer variable will hold the address of the data contents. If an asterisk “*” operator is present before the variable then that variable is referred as pointer variable.

Consider the following statement:

//definition of pointer variable

int *ptrvar;

Here the variable “ptrvar” is defined to a pointer variable of integer data type. So, it can store the address of an integer variable.

Returning a pointer from the function:

Pointers can be returned from the function only if the reference pointer variable that points exists in the function.

Circumstance for successful return of a pointer:

The circumstances for returning pointer successful are listed below:

• When a pointer is passed as an argument in a function that is called.
  • When a pointer variable is defined locally within the function there may be possibility for the contents of the variables being destructed after execution of the function. This can cause unexpected results.
• When pointer gets chunk of memory allocated dynamically.
  • When a variable is allocated dynamically, the contents will be available until the compiler executes the “delete” operation.