String

[nammae]

I get a problem when I try to compile this code:

// pointer and string

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()
{
	char myStr[] = "I am a string.";
     	
	for(int i = 0; myStr[i] != '\0'; ++i)
		cout << i[myStr];
		
	return 0;
}

As you can see, I wrote i[myStr], not myStr[i]. But the result is still correct.
Can you explain me why?

[Disch]

This is a weird thing C/C++ let you do. The [brackets] are just shorthand for the indirection operator.

myStr[i] is really just an alternative/simpler way to write *(myStr + i). But to the compiler, they're the same*.

Also... *(i + myStr) is the same as *(myStr + i) because it doesn't matter which order you add the vars.... the result is the same.

Therefore...

i[myStr] works because it's the same thing as
*(i + myStr) which works because it's the same thing as
*(myStr + i) which is the same thing as
myStr[i]



But you don't really do i[myStr] ever.

_{* brackets are the same as indirection only as long as there's no operator overloading involved. Overloaded operators typically work very differently}