Difference between char* and char[]

Question

I know this is a very basic question. I am confused as to why and how are the following different.

char str[] = "Test"; char *str = "Test"; 

Answer 1

char str[] = "Test"; 

Is an array of chars, initialized with the contents from "Test", while

char *str = "Test"; 

is a pointer to the literal (const) string "Test".

The main difference between them is that the first is an array and the other one is a pointer. The array owns its contents, which happen to be a copy of "Test", while the pointer simply refers to the contents of the string (which in this case is immutable).

Answer 2

The diference is the STACK memory used.

For example when programming for microcontrollers where very little memory for the stack is allocated, makes a big difference.

char a[] = "string"; // the compiler puts {'s','t','r','i','n','g', 0} onto STACK   char *a = "string"; // the compiler puts just the pointer onto STACK                      // and {'s','t','r','i','n','g',0} in static memory area.