Verbalizing pointer operations

In this chapter, we have seen a variety of ways to describe pointers, what they point to, and how they are used. We will now turn our attention to how to verbalize various aspects of pointers. If we can consistently and clearly talk about pointers to ourselves, then we'll have a firmer grasp on how they operate and what we're actually doing with them.

Important Note

Talking correctly leads to thinking clearly.

The following table shows some actions that we might carry out with pointers, the C syntax for each action (what we see in code), and, lastly, how to mentally verbalize that action:

Verbalizing each of these in this manner may take some practice or simply consistent repetition.

So, we have now covered the most basic mechanics of pointers – declaring them, assigning them, accessing them, comparing them, and even talking about them. The examples given have focused...