Where is memory allocated with a const char pointer? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Is a string literal in c++ created in static memory?
C++ string literal data type storage

In this code:

const char * str = "hello world";

If I understand correctly a pointer is 4 or 8 bytes, which I guess would be allocated on the stack. But where is the memory for the "hello world" allocated and stored?
Or what does str point to exactly?

Answer 1

It's not allocated. It's generally stored in your program's code segment or on the stack That's up to the compiler. Either way, it points to a null-terminated array of characters.

Answer 2

C has no stack or heap. C says that "hello world" is a string literal and that string literals have static storage duration.

Answer 3

Essentailly, that is compiled as if you had written:

const static char helloworld[12] 
             = {'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o',' ','w', 'o', 'r', 'l', 'd', '\0'};

const char * str = helloworld;

The array would normally be placed in some read-only section of memory, probably near the executable code.

Depending on where it's defined, str will be in the stack or global memory space.