A few questions regarding memory management (C language)

1

Hello there! I’ve been studying C during this week and I came across a few (with a few I mean a lot) of questions regarding memory management.

So if I write the following code:

int main(void) {
string p;
print("p: ");
scanf("%s", &p);
}

When I create the variable p, the computer assigns a piece of memory to store whatever string we put into p and the operator &p seeks the memory address where p is located and stores the value we have given to p.

First question: is my interpretation correct?

Second question: if I declare p as a pointer, can I “get rid” of the assignment (&) operator?

e.g.:

int main(void) {
string *p;
print("p: ");
scanf("%s", p);
}

And lastly, how does scanf() differ from get_string(), get_int() etc? Essentially, I believe they do the same, which is getting input from the user, but when talking about memory, how different are their behaviors?

2

I’ve edited your post for readability. When you enter a code block into the forum, precede it with a line of three backticks and follow it with a line of three backticks to make easier to read. See this post to find the backtick on your keyboard. The “preformatted text” tool in the editor (</>) will also add backticks around text.

markdown_Forums

3

In C there is no such type as a string. Are you doing CS50 course which supplies a library that implements a string data type?

Here’s some good reading on this subject:

https://www.programiz.com/c-programming/c-strings