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Pointers save memory space. Execution time with pointers is faster because data are manipulated with the address, that is, direct access to memory location. Memory is accessed efficiently with the pointers. The pointer assigns and releases the memory as well.
Objective-C allows you to have pointer on a pointer and so on. Passing an argument by reference or by address both enable the passed argument to be changed in the calling function by the called function.
A pointer is a variable that stores the address of another variable. Unlike other variables that hold values of a certain type, pointer holds the address of a variable. For example, an integer variable holds (or you can say stores) an integer value, however an integer pointer holds the address of a integer variable.
The Pointer in C, is a variable that stores address of another variable. A pointer can also be used to refer to another pointer function. A pointer can be incremented/decremented, i.e., to point to the next/ previous memory location. The purpose of pointer is to save memory space and achieve faster execution time.
A very basic question .. but really very important to understand the concepts.. in c++ or c languages, we usually don't use pointer variables to store values.. i.e. values are stored simply as is in:
int a=10;
but here in ios sdk, in objective c, most of the objects which we use are initialized by denoting a pointer with them as in:
NSArray *myArray=[NSArray array];
So,the question arises in my mind ,that, what are the benefit and need of using pointer-objects (thats what we call them here, if it is not correct, please, do tell).. Also I just get confused sometimes with memory allocation fundamentals when using a pointer objects for allocation. Can I look for good explanations anywhere?
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