Question

While working with pointers i wrote the following code,

int main()
{
    int a[]={10,20,30,40,50};
    int i;
    for(i=0;i<5;i++)
    {
        printf("\n%d",*a);
        a++;
    }
    return 0;
}

Now as per my understanding array name itself is an address in c and the pointer arithmetic done is here is correct as per my knowledge. But when i try to run the code it is giving me “Lvalue Required” error.

So what is the exact reason for occuring Lvalue required error because before this also i have come across situations where this error is there. Secondly why the arithmetic on the pointer is not legal here in this case?

Answer 1

You can’t do a++ on a static array – which is not an Lvalue. You need to do on a pointer instead. Try this:

int *ptr = a;
int i;
for(i=0;i<5;i++)
{
    printf("\n%d",*ptr);
    ptr++;
}

Although in this case, it’s probably better to just use the index:

int i;
for(i=0;i<5;i++)
{
    printf("\n%d",a[i]);
}