Memory Allocation char* and char[]

Question

What is the difference between these two in terms of memory allocation.

char *p1 = \"hello\"; 
char p2[] = \"hello\";

Answer 1

Since the first one is a non-const pointer to const (read-only) data, the second is a non-const array, as Paul said, you can write:

p2[2]='A'; //changing third character - okay

But you cannot write:

p1[2]='A';//changing third character - runtime error!

Answer 2

The first one creates a pointer variable (four or eight bytes of storage depending on the platform) and stores a location of a string literal there, The second one creates an array of six characters (including zero string terminator byte) and copies the literal there.

You should get a compiler warning on the first line since the literal is const.

Answer 3

The first one is a non-const pointer to const (read-only) data, the second is a non-const array.