Storing the address to an array in a pointer

[Sythical]

Hello, I'm having trouble understanding the relationship between arrays and pointers. Based on what I've read, arrays are syntax sugar for pointers and arrays simply stores the pointer to the first element.

// the following works fine
int i_array[] = { 1, 2, 3 };
int *i_array_ptr = i_array;

cout << i_array[0] << " " << *(i_array + 1) << " " << *(i_array_ptr + 2) << endl;

// this doesn't work
int *i_array_new = { 1, 2, 3 };

Why am I not allowed to directly store the address to an array in a pointer?

Cheers!

[Jaybob66]

because you are trying to point at an array.

the int* can only point to one int at a time.

i_array_new is a pointer so cant be assigned a collection of values, it has to receive an address.

in your working example you assign the pointer to bei_array (notice the lack of []) thats the address of the array. thats why you need +1 +2 etc to access consecutive items.

[Sythical]

But doesn't { 1, 2, 3 } return the address of the first value only? So I would have thought int* should be able to store the address to that.

[Jaybob66]

oops, took too long to edit my post.

no, it is an actual collection, &{1,2,3} is the address. but thats invalid c/c++