Swapping pointers in C (char, int)

Question

I have been struggling to understand the different behaviour when swapping pointers in C. If I want to swap two int pointers, then I can do

void         


        

Answer 1

void intSwap (int *pa, int *pb){
    int temp = *pa;
    *pa = *pb;
    *pb = temp;
}

You need to know the following -

int a = 5; // an integer, contains value
int *p; // an integer pointer, contains address
p = &a; // &a means address of a
a = *p; // *p means value stored in that address, here 5

---

void charSwap(char* a, char* b){
    char temp = *a;
    *a = *b;
    *b = temp;
}

So, when you swap like this. Only the value will be swapped. So, for a char* only their first char will swap.

Now, if you understand char* (string) clearly, then you should know that, you only need to exchange the pointer. It'll be easier to understand if you think it as an array instead of string.

void stringSwap(char** a, char** b){
    char *temp = *a;
    *a = *b;
    *b = temp;
}

So, here you are passing double pointer because starting of an array itself is a pointer.