Question

What does the indirection operator do?

Short answer

Answer: The indirection operator, also known as the dereference operator, is used to access and manipulate the value stored in the memory location pointed by a pointer. It allows us to indirectly access and modify the value stored in the memory location of another variable.

Step-by-step solution

Definition of Indirection Operator

The indirection operator, also known as the dereference operator, is a unary operator (it has only one operand) in programming languages like C/C++. It is denoted by an asterisk (*). The indirection operator is used to access the value stored in the memory location pointed by a pointer.

Understanding Pointers

Before diving into the indirection operator, it's important to understand pointers. A pointer is a variable that stores the memory address of another variable. Pointers allow us to indirectly access and modify the value stored in the memory location of another variable.

Using the Indirection Operator

To understand the usage of the indirection operator, let's consider the following example code snippet in C: ```c int x = 42; // Declare an integer variable x with the value 42 int* p = &x // Declare a pointer variable p, which holds the memory address of x int y = *p; // Declare an integer variable y and initialize it with the value stored at the memory location pointed by p ``` In this example, the indirection operator (*) is used to access the value 42 stored at the memory location pointed by the pointer p. The value will be assigned to the variable y.

Conclusion

In summary, the indirection operator is used to access and manipulate the value stored in the memory location pointed by a pointer. It's a useful concept for working with memory addresses and pointer variables in programming languages like C/C++.