what does the * indicate in char* (very surprisingly searching web no help)

[Mohammed Azeem]

Very quick query. What does the * in char* signify?

I'm studying a hash function that takes char* as an argument.

I have searched 30 mins on the internet trying to find out but surprisingly: NOTHING!! only char. Thumbed through all my books as well.

I know about char just want to clarify char* (is it a wildcard of some sort)?


All help appreciated.

[Stephan van Hulst]

Where did you find this? This is not Java syntax. It looks like C or C++ syntax. In that case, it's a pointer to a character, signifying it's likely used to pass a string.

[Henry Wong]

I think that you will need to provide more context. How is this "char*" used? Is it part of a regular expression?

Henry

[Mohammed Azeem]

OK so here's the code (it from a Youtube tutorial on hash tables)

unsigned int hash(char* str) {
int sum=0;
for (int j=0; str[j] != '\0'; j++) {
sum+=str[j];
}

return sum % HASH_MAX;

}

[Mohammed Azeem]

at time 7:14 in the video.

[Henry Wong]

The code in that tutorial uses the C language. And as Stephan mentioned, it is for pointer to a character. In the example, it is declaring a parameter that is a character pointer.


And BTW, I am moving this topic to the C/C++ forum for you.

Henry

[Mohammed Azeem]

Oh Crumbs! OK.

It's a very, very good tutorial though and I'm going to continue with it.

So what data type is char* ?

[Mohammed Azeem]

Oh OK. I think I'be got my head round it.

Thanks for all your help and time.

[Henry Wong]

Mohammed Azeem wrote:
So what data type is char* ?

It is a pointer to a character... which Java does not have an equivalent to.


Now, arguably, for the example, the equivalent would likely be a string (or character array), which is what the code is dealing with.

Henry

[Campbell Ritchie]

I suggest you find yourself a C/C++ tutorial and search for pointer to char or similar. Using char *str suggests to me that you are using C rather than C++. C doesn't really have a String type, rather using arrays of chars 1 larger than the number of letters in the text. The extra char is set to \0 = the null character.
I don't think that is a very good way to calculate hash codes nor a very good way to demonstrate pointers.

I think the reason you didn't find anything on the web is that search engines don't search the asterisk.