pointer to array c++

Question

What is the following code doing?

int g[] = {9,8}; int (*j) = g; 

From my understanding its creating a pointer to an array of 2 ints. But then why does this work:

int x = j[0]; 

and this not work:

int x = (*j)[0]; 

Answer 1

The parenthesis are superfluous in your example. The pointer doesn't care whether there's an array involved - it only knows that its pointing to an int

  int g[] = {9,8};   int (*j) = g; 

could also be rewritten as

  int g[] = {9,8};   int *j = g; 

which could also be rewritten as

  int g[] = {9,8};   int *j = &g[0]; 

a pointer-to-an-array would look like

  int g[] = {9,8};   int (*j)[2] = &g;    //Dereference 'j' and access array element zero   int n = (*j)[0]; 

There's a good read on pointer declarations (and how to grok them) at this link here: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/7042/How-to-interpret-complex-C-C-declarations