Clarification with pointer arithmetics eg *ip++ = 0

hi

if i have a code

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(void)
{
    int a=10, *ip;
    ip =&a;
    ip++;
    printf("ip is %d and a is %d\n",ip,a);
    
    [B]*ip++ = 0;[/B]
    
    
    system("pause");
    return 0;
    
}

what do the code in bold do?

thanks!

 

sorry the quote i bolded it is actually this:

Code:

*ip++=0

 

It's undefined, because ip doesn't point to anything definite.

If you have something like this instead:

Code:

int a[10];
int *ip = &a[0];
ip++;
*ip++=0;

then this will be defined; ip will point to a[1], and the command will dereference and postincrement ip, and write 0 to the resulting address (which is a[1]) and leave ip pointing at a[2].

Without the first ip++ in your original code the behaviour will be defined because ip points to a; *ip++=0 sets a to 0 and increments ip, which then points to somewhere undefined in memory, and dereferencing the pointer again will lead to undefined behaviour.