Pointers in C Programming : A Modern Approach to Memory Management, Recursive Data Structures, Strings, and Arrays

Gain a better understanding of pointers, from the basics of how pointers function at the machine level, to using them for a variety of common and advanced scenarios. This short contemporary guide book on pointers in C programming provides a resource for professionals and advanced students needing in-depth hands-on coverage of pointer basics and advanced features. It includes the latest versions of the C language, C20, C17, and C14. You'll see how pointers are used to provide vital C features, such as strings, arrays, higher-order functions and polymorphic data structures. Along the way, you'll cover how pointers can optimize a program to run faster or use less memory than it would otherwise. There are plenty of code examples in the book to emulate and adapt to meet your specific needs. What You Will Learn Work effectively with pointers in your C programming Learn how to effectively manage dynamic memory Program with strings and arrays Create recursive data structures Implement function pointers Who This Book Is For Intermediate to advanced level professional programmers, software developers, and advanced students or researchers. Prior experience with C programming is expected. Table of Contents About the Author About the Technical Reviewer Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Memory, Objects, and Addresses The Memory of a Generic Process Objects, Sizes, and Addresses Memory Allocation Alignment Call Stacks and the Lifetime of Local Variables Chapter 3: Pointers Call by Reference NULL Pointers Const and Pointers Restricted Pointers Chapter 4: Pointers and Types Pointers, Types, and Data Interpretation Casting Between Pointers of Different Types Void Pointers Qualified Types Unions Struct Pointers Character Pointers Arbitrary Types Void Pointers Chapter 5: Arrays Arrays, Indices, and Pointer Arithmetic Out-of-Bounds Errors Pointers to Arrays Arrays and Function Arguments Multidimensional Arrays Chapter 6: Working with Arrays Sieve of Eratosthenes Array Solution Pointer Solution Radix Sorting Generic Functions on Arrays Chapter 7: Strings Strings as Sequences of Bytes Integers to Strings Run-Length Encoding Finding Words Compacting Words Buffer Overflow Errors Chapter 8: Substrings Through Ranges Basic Operations Revisiting Word Iterators Replacing Strings Chapter 9: Dynamic Memory Management Functions for Dynamic Memory Allocation malloc() calloc() realloc() aligned_alloc() free() String Operations Dynamic Arrays Gapped Buffers Chapter 10: Generic Dynamic Arrays Void Pointers Generic Memory Buffer Code Generating Macros Inlining Macros Heap-Allocated Inlined Array Chapter 11: Linked Lists Singly Linked Lists Adding a Level of Indirection Adding a Dummy Element Doubly Linked Lists Link Operations List Operations Sorting Doubly Linked Lists Selection Sort Insertion Sort Merge Sort Quicksort Chapter 12: Search Trees Tree Operations Contains Insert Delete Free Recursive Data Structures and Recursive Functions Direct Implementation Pass by Reference Refactoring Iterative Functions Explicit Stacks Morris Traversal Freeing Nodes Without Recursion and Memory Allocation Adding a Parent Pointer Chapter 13: Function Pointers Function Pointers for High-Order Functions Callbacks Generic String Iterator Function Pointers for Abstract Data Structures Function Pointers for Polymorphic Data Structures Single Inheritance Objects and Classes A Hierarchy of Expression Classes Generating Functions Tagged Pointers Chapter 14: Generic Lists and Trees Generic Lists Casting to Links Using Offsets Generic Search Trees Chapter 15: Reference Counting Garbage Collection Immutable Links with Reference Counting Adding a Compiler Extension (Not Portable!) A Generic Reference Counter Search Trees with Reference Counting Circular Structures? Chapter 16: Allocation Pools A Simple Pool for Tree Nodes Adding Resizing Adding Deallocation A Generic Pool Chapter 17: Conclusions Index