Why C treats array parameters as pointers?

C treats array parameter as pointers because it is less time consuming and more efficient. Though if we can pass the address of each element of the array to a function as argument but it will be more time consuming. So it’s better to pass the base address of first element to the function like:

void fun(int a[]) {
…
}
void fun(int *a) { //more efficient.
…..
}

Here is a sample code in C:

#include

void display1(int a[]) //printing the array content
{
   int i;
   printf("
Current content of the array is: 
");
   for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)
      printf(" %d",a[i]);
}

void display2(int *a) //printing the array content
{
   int i;
   printf("
Current content of the array is: 
");
   for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)
      printf(" %d",*(a+i));
}
int main()
{
   int a[5] = {4, 2, 7, 9, 6}; //initialization of array elements

   display1(a);
   display2(a);
   return 0;
}

Output

Current content of the array is:
4 2 7 9 6
Current content of the array is:
4 2 7 9 6

Vrundesha Joshi

Updated on: 30-Jul-2019

208 Views

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