gistfile1.txt

In C and C++:

Myth: Arrays are just pointers

Reality: Pointers are something else: Pointers do store a single address, while
arrays can store multiple values. Arrays are converted to pointers to their
first element implicitly and often.

I often see people write that arrays are just pointers pointing to a block of
memory. That yields to the fact that people try to pass arrays like if they
were pointers. Two dimensional arrays are tried to pass like

void myarray(int **array) { array[i][j]...; } // wrong!  while believing if
they have two dimensions, they have a pointer to a pointer. In reality, an
array itself consists of the elements, it does not point to them:

int a[4][3]; sizeof(a) == 4 * sizeof(int[3]) There are many contexts in which
one needs to address a certain element of it. This is where it converts to a
pointer implicitly (i.e without programmers writing it). When passing the array
to a function, the function receives a pointer to the first element that points
to the array. That pointer is made up by the compiler as a temporary. The two
dimensional array of above, would thus be passed like this:

void myarray(int (*array)[3]); Which makes the parameter a pointer to the first
element of it, namely a pointer to the first 3-elements array.

This is a copy of: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/423823/whats-your-favorite-programmer-ignorance-pet-peeve/484900#484900 written by Johannes Schaub - litb