What does *array[] means? [duplicate]

Question

In c, if i declare something like:

char *somarray[] = {"Hello"};

What does it mean ?

If i print it:

somarray -> gives me a memory address in the stack

&somarray -> same thing, stack memory address, but..

*somarray -> gives me a memory address in the constants

I can actually use *somarray to print the string.

What is going on?

Answer 1

*array[] means array of pointers, in your example:

char *somarray[] = {"Hello"}; 

somarray[] is array of char*. this array size is one and contains address to on string "Hello" like:

somarray[0] -----> "Hello"

somarray means address of first element in array.

&somarray means array address

*somarray means value of first element

Suppose address of "Hello" string is for example 201, and array somaaray at 423 address, then it looks like:

+----+----+----+---+---+----+----+----+---+----+ 
| `H`| 'e'|'l'|'l'|'o'| '\0'|   
+----+----+----+---+---+----+----+----+---+---+----+  
 201   202  203 204 205 206  207   208 209 210  2
 ^
 | 
+----+----+
| 201     |
+----+----+
 423
somarray

and:

somarray gives 423

&somarray gives 423

*somarray gives 201

Point to be notice somarray and &somarray gives same value but semantically both are different. One is address of first element other is address of array. read this answer.