How Are C Arrays Represented In Memory?

Question

I believe I understand how normal variables and pointers are represented in memory if you are using C.

For example, it\'s easy to understand that a pointer Ptr will

Answer 1

An array is a block of contiguous objects with no spaces in between. This means that x in your second example is represented in memory as:

+---------------------+-------------+---------+
| Variable Name       | Address     | Value   | 
+---------------------+-------------+---------+
| x                   | 10568       | 12      |
|                     |             +---------+
|                     |             | 13      |
|                     |             +---------+
|                     |             | 14      |
|                     |             +---------+
|                     |             | ??      |
|                     |             +---------+
|                     |             | ??      |
+---------------------+-------------+---------+

That is, x is five ints big, and has a single address.

The weird part about arrays isn't in how they're stored - it's how they're evaluated in expressions. If you use an array name somewhere that it isn't the subject of the unary & or sizeof operators, it evaluates to the address of its first member.

That is, if you just write x, you will get a value 10568 with type int *.

If, on the other hand you write &x, then the special rule doesn't apply - so the & operator works like it normally does, which means that it fetches the address of the array. In the example, this will be a value 10568 with type int (*)[5].

The reason that x == &x is that the address of the first member of an array is necessarily equal to the address of the array itself, since an array starts with its first member.