Pointers and arrays in C++ - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Pointers and Arrays

📖 Scenario: You are learning how to use pointers to access elements in an array. Imagine you have a list of temperatures recorded over a week, and you want to use pointers to read these values.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple C++ program that creates an array of temperatures, uses a pointer to access the array elements, and prints each temperature using the pointer.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an integer array called temps with exactly 7 values: 23, 25, 22, 20, 24, 26, 21

Create a pointer called ptr that points to the first element of temps

Use a for loop with an integer variable i from 0 to 6 to access array elements via the pointer

Print each temperature value accessed through the pointer inside the loop

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Pointers and arrays are used in many programs to efficiently access and manipulate lists of data, such as sensor readings or user inputs.

💼 Career

Understanding pointers and arrays is essential for programming in C++ and systems programming jobs, where memory management and performance are important.

1

Create the array of temperatures

Create an integer array called temps with these exact values: 23, 25, 22, 20, 24, 26, 21.

C++

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the syntax int temps[7] = {values}; to create the array.

2

Create a pointer to the array

Create a pointer called ptr that points to the first element of the temps array.

C++

int temps[7] = {23, 25, 22, 20, 24, 26, 21};
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use int* ptr = temps; to point to the first element of the array.

3

Use a for loop to access array elements via the pointer

Use a for loop with an integer variable i from 0 to 6 to access each element of temps through the pointer ptr. Inside the loop, access the element using *(ptr + i).

C++

int temps[7] = {23, 25, 22, 20, 24, 26, 21};
int* ptr = temps;
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use for (int i = 0; i < 7; i++) and inside the loop use *(ptr + i) to get each temperature.

4

Print each temperature using the pointer

Inside the for loop, print each temperature accessed through the pointer using std::cout. Print each temperature on its own line.

C++

int temps[7] = {23, 25, 22, 20, 24, 26, 21};
int* ptr = temps;
for (int i = 0; i < 7; i++) {
    int temp = *(ptr + i);
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use std::cout << temp << std::endl; inside the loop to print each temperature.