Pointers: Thinking in Memory

C's most feared feature is really one mental picture: memory as numbered boxes, and a pointer as a box that holds another box's number. Eleven chapters take you from why pointers exist at all, through the three classic bugs, const contracts, aliasing, and void*, up to smart pointers and a finale on undefined behaviour. Written for anyone who has compiled C before and still flinches at the asterisk.

01 Why Pointers?the reason they exist at all read 02 Addresses, & and *& asks where. * asks what's there. read 03 Arrays Are Not Pointersthe sizeof trap and the decay read

04 Stack, Heap, and Lifetimewhere memory actually lives coming

05 The Three Villainsnull, wild, and dangling coming

06 Pointers and Functionswhy C callbacks look like that coming

07 The const Puzzleone star, two positions, six characters coming

08 Aliasingtwo pointers, one very nervous compiler coming

09 The Typeless Pointerthe pointer that forgot its type coming

10 Ownership in the Type Systemunique, shared, weak coming

11 Where Seniors Earn Their Paywhy the compiler is allowed to do that coming