Assign array to array

Question

So I am playing around with some arrays, and I cannot figure out why this won\'t work.

int numbers[5] = {1, 2, 3};
int values[5] = {0, 0, 0, 0, 0};
values =          


        

Answer 1

Array names are constant not modifiable l-value, you can't modify it.

values = numbers; 
// ^
// is array name

Read compiler error message: "error C2106: '=' : left operand must be l-value" an l-value is modifiable can be appear at lhs of =.

You can assign array name to a pointer, like:

int* ptr = numbers;

Note: array name is constant but you can modify its content e.g. value[i] = number[i] is an valid expression for 0 <= i < 5.

Why can't I do like that?

Basically this constrain is imposed by language, internally array name uses as base address and by indexing with base address you can access content continue memory allocated for array. So in C/C++ array names with be appear at lhs not a l-value.