The Little Book Of Pointers: For C Programmers

The fastest, easiest way to master pointers in C.

Pointers are essential in C – but learning how to use them correctly can be hard work. The Little Book Of Pointers comes to the rescue.

This book explains...

• Pointer variables
• Dereferencing pointers
• Multiple Indirection
• Arrays, strings and addresses
• Pointer Arithmetic
• Generic pointers
• Pointers to structs
• Data Alignment
• Memory Allocation
• Linked Lists
• Stacks
• Queues
• Function Pointers
• Deep & Shallow Copies
• Common Pointer Problems

The Little Book Of Pointers guides you step-by-step towards a deep understanding of pointer variables and common data structures. It is illustrated throughout. By the time you finish this book, you will know pointers inside out.

This is a book for intermediate to advanced-level C programmers. It explains pointers from the ground up. What exactly is a pointer variable and how does it work with addresses in memory? What is indirection? How can you use multiple indirection? What is an array identifier - a pointer or an address? How can you avoid common pointer problems such as memory leaks and program crashes? What is the correct and safe way to allocate memory? What is data type alignment and why does the field order of a struct change the amount of memory it requires? How do you do pointer arithmetic? How can you create singly and doubly linked lists? What is the difference between a stack and a queue and how can you manipulate them using pointers? How can you create function pointers - or even arrays of function pointers?

Each topic is explained with code examples. All the source code is provided as a free download from the publisher's web site.

Huw Collingbourne has been a programmer for more than 30 years. He is an online programming instructor who has taught tens of thousands of students to code in languages such as C, C#, Java, Object Pascal and Ruby. He had written programming columns for numerous computer magazines such as PC Plus and Computer Shopper. He is Technical Director of the independent development company, SapphireSteel Software. He is the author of a number of programming books including The Book Of Ruby, The Little Book Of C and The Little Book of Recursion.

The Little Book Of Pointers gives you just the stuff you really need to get straight to the heart of C pointers without all the fluff and padding.