Question

The basic pseudo code looks like this:

void myFunction()
{

int size = 10;

int * MyArray;

MyArray = new int[size];

cout << size << endl;

cout << sizeof(MyArray) << endl;

}

The first cout returns 10, as expected, while the second cout returns 4.

Anyone have an explanation?

Answer 1

MyArray is only a pointer, which on your system, has a size of four bytes.

When you dynamically create an array, you need to keep track of the size yourself.

If you created an automatic array or static array,

int MyArray[10];

then sizeof(MyArray) would be 40. As soon as the array decays to a pointer, though, e.g. when you pass it to a function, the size information is lost.