Pointers and printing

[Rave]

Hello, i was trying to learn about pointers and i came across this.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;



int main()
{


char *p;
int i=0;
p= new char [10];
cin>>p;
while (i<10)
{
    cin.clear();
  cout <<"the p is: "<<*p++<<endl;
  i++;

}


return 0;
}

i have few question,when i allocated the dynamic char, for the ponters, the pointer "p" points to first block of char. thus printing *p, should print char [0]. but i have a problem if i say cout <<p; it prints the whole entire char array, and if i do this p++, it prints the array from 1-9, if i do p++ again it would print array from 2-9. i don't understand this.

using *p works fine, since it de referencing, thus value pointed by p. also *p++ works perfectly, first run would print char [0], then [1], etc.

can you explain to me whats going on, and the difference with printing p and *p.


Also final question, if i do cin >>p; it works fine although i don't understand it because i am not reading in to p, but rather the value being pointed by p. thus this should be valid cin>>*p; but this doesn't read in properly, this reads in rubbish.

[hamsterman]

char* is a string. Therefore, printing a char* will print a string. Note that printing any other pointer would give a number.
p is a char*, *p is obviously a char. So when you print *p, you print a char.
The same is for input. p is a string, so cin>>p, gives you a string. *p is a char, so cin>>*p gives you one char only.