COMPUTER PROGRAMMING

Engr. Anees Ahmed Soomro

Assistant Professor
CSE QUEST Nawabshah
INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER PROGRAMMING

1) Pointers
2) Declare pointer variable
3) Searching algorithm
4) String, Array of strings
Pointers
Pointers are addresses
• A pointer is really the address of something in memory.
• Pointers are needed if it is required that a function change
the value of an object(through global variables could be
used).
• For example, the scanf function takes pointers as
arguments.
Pointers are not Integers
• It is possible to treat pointers as though they are integers
since they hold actual addresses in memory i-e 7232.
• printf, scanf, assignment and some of the arithmetic
operators work with pointers.
The * and & operators
&
It gives the address of something in memory, that is it
generates a pointer to the object.

*
• It gives what is pointed at by a pointer(called
dereferencing).
for example
int i=17;
Then the expression &i generates a pointer to the variable i.
• We can then find out what this pointer is pointing at by
applying the * operator to newly generated pointer.
Thus
*&i should have value 17.
Declare pointer variable
• To declare a pointer to an integer
int *ptr;
• Which says that type of *ptr is int, that is the object that
we find when following pointer ptr is an integer.
• Type of ptr is pointer to int, or int *.
• Declaring several pointers in a comma separated list
int *ptr1,ptr2,ptr3;
one pointer variable and two integer variable.
Declare pointer variable
main()
{
int i=17;
int *pi=&i;
*pi=25;
printf(“%d”,*pi);
printf(“%d”,pi);
return 0
}
Searching algorithm

Linear Search

• Search each record of file, one at a time, until finding the

given name hence the corresponding telephone number.
• First of all, it is clear that the time required to execute the
algorithm is proportional to the number of comparisons.
• The average number of comparison for a file with n
record is equal to n/2, that is complexity of linear search
is
C(n)=n/2
• This would be impossible if we are having thousands of
names, then binary would be good
Searching algorithm

Binary Search

• Compare the given name with the name in the middle of

list, this tells which half of the list contain name.
• Then compare Name with name in the middle of correct
half to determine which quarter of list contains name.
• For example, one will not require more than 15
comparisons to find a given name in a list containing
25000 names.
• One can show that the complexity of binary search
algorithm is given by
C(n)=log2(n)
Array of Strings

String is itself an array in C

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
void main(void)
{
char name[81];
scanf(“%s”,name);
printf(“Greetings %s”,name);
}
#define MAX 5
#define LEN 40
void main(void)
{
int dex;
int enter=0;
char name[40];
char list[MAX][LEN]={“katrina”, “nigel”, “alistair”, “francesia”,
“gustan”};
printf(“enter your name”);
gets(name);
for(dex=0;dex<MAX;dex++)
if(strcmp(&list[dex][0],name)==0)
enter=1;
if(enter==1)
printf(“you may enter, oh honored one”);
else
printf(“guards!”remove the person”);