Just When I Though I Understood Pointers

[Triryche]

Just When I thought I understood pointers I run across this example:

 int main(){
     char *s = "hello world";
     *s = 'H';
return 0;
 }

Why does this crash?

[Bazzy]

"hello world"; will return a position in constant memory so you can't modify it, the proper way of declaring 's' should be this:
const char *s = "hello world";
If you want something you can modify you should mace 's' an array: char s[] = "hello world"; or, of course, a std::string

[Triryche]

Thanks for the reply!! I am just beginning.

The code snippet was an example I ran across, nothing I am actually trying to use.

But other programs that I am practicing with declare pointers and explicitly change the values.

[Bazzy]

You can change values with pointers, you just need to own the memory you want to modify.
Some compilers may also allow the program you posted but that isn't a standard behaviour.

[Triryche]

So, how do you know if you own the mem?

[Bazzy]

You can allocate memory:

char *c;
c = new char[6];
sprintf(c,"hello");
*c='H';
delete[] c;

Or you can just use arrays