Question

Int main(){

long a[]={6,9,10};

printf("%p\\",a);
printf("%p\\",&a);
printf("%p\\",&a[0]);

return 0;
}
the result is:

0x7ff9c94a10
0x7ff9c94a10
0x7ff9c94a10
this result really baffles me a lot! how come it stores different values at the same memory locaton, at 0x7ff9c94a10 exists there the address itself and value 6 simultaneously

Answer 1

The addresses you see for the array name, the address of the array, and the address of the first element all being the same is normal in C programming. It reflects how arrays are represented and accessed in memory, with the name of the array acting as a pointer to its first element.

Step-by-step explanation:

You are observing a common aspect of how arrays are handled in the C programming language. In C, the name of the array a is essentially a pointer to the first element of the array. When you print the address of the array using printf("%p\\",a);, you're getting the address where the array starts, which is the same as the address of the first element.

When you use &a, you are asking for the address of the entire array object, which, in memory, begins at the same location as the first element. However, if you were to use this address as a pointer, it would be of a different type (pointer to an array of long integers), and so pointer arithmetic on this type would behave differently than on a regular pointer to a long.

Finally, &a[0] explicitly requests the address of the first element of the array, which is again, at the same location as the array name.

There is no contradiction in these addresses being the same. What would differ is the type of the pointer if you were to use these addresses in pointer arithmetic or in other expressions.