Saturday, December 5, 2009

What is a void pointer? Why can't we perform arithmetic on a void * pointer?

The void data type is used when no other data type is appropriate. A void pointer is a pointer that may point to any kind of object at all. It is used when a pointer must be specified but its type is unknown.

The compiler doesn't know the size of the pointed-to objects incase of a void * pointer. Before performing arithmetic, convert the pointer either to char * or to the pointer type you're trying to manipulate



2) We can perform indirection on void pointers

void main()
{
void *v;
int integer=2;
int *i=&integer;
v=i;
printf("%d",(int*)*v);
}

This will issue compiler error.

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