Question

Even after years of C, pointers still confuse me.

Are these two the same:

int *num;
someFunc(num)  

and

int num;
someFunc(&num);

Declaring a variable with * makes it a pointer, & turns a variable (momentarily) into a pointer?

Answer 1

No they are not the same. In the first case you have a pointer which is pointing to some random memory location (as you have not initialized it). In the second case, the pointer obtained in someFunc will be pointing to a valid location (the address of variable num).