Question

On page 42 of Effective C++, a pointer is used as an array name ala

AirPlane *newBlock = …

newBlock[i].next=0;

I’ve not been aware that this is legal. Is this part of the c++ standard? Is it common practice?

Answer 1

From http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/pointers/:

In the chapter about arrays we used
brackets ([]) several times in order
to specify the index of an element of
the array to which we wanted to refer.
Well, these bracket sign operators []
are also a dereference operator known
as offset operator. They dereference
the variable they follow just as *
does, but they also add the number
between brackets to the address being
dereferenced. For example:

a[5] = 0;       // a [offset of 5] = 0
*(a+5) = 0;     // pointed by (a+5) = 0 

These two expressions are equivalent
and valid both if a is a pointer or if
a is an array.