Question

int* p_bob = new int;

*p_bob = 78;

The above code makes sense to me. I use the de-reference operation to allocation new memory and assign a value of 78.

int* p_dynint = new int[10];
*p_dynint[2] = 12;

This however doesn’t make sense. If I try to use the de-reference operator on p_dynint[] I get an error. Why would an array be any different?

Answer 1

*p_bob = 78; this assigns the value 78 to the memory pointed to by p_bob (which represents an int).

p_dynint[2] = 12; simply accesses the 3rd element.

p_dynint[2] is actually equivalent to *(p_dynint+2).