Very simple question

[SameerThigale]

int a[100];

Now what will &a return?

[Aceix]

Anything?, but its memory address.

[SameerThigale]

Anything? :-D

I guess &a is equivalent to &a[0]

[JLBorges]

int a[100] ; &a : pointer to the array of 100 int elements.

typedef int array_type[100] ;

array_type array ;
array_type& reference_to_array = array ;
array_type* pointer_to_array = &array ;

array_type array_of_array[20] ;
pointer_to_array = array_of_array ; // points to array_of_array[0]
++pointer_to_array ; // now points to array_of_array[1] 

[SameerThigale]

JLBroges

Then what would be the difference between a and &a ??

[zb0S216C]

Both return the address of the first element. The only visible difference is that "&a" uses an operator to obtain the address.

_Wazzak

[JLBorges]

a is an array; it can be implicitly converted to a pointer to its first element.

&a is a pointer to the array a. *&a is (a refrence to) a.

The type pointer to array is not the same as the the type pointer to the first element of the array.

[vlad from moscow]

&a has type int ( * )[100]

a in expressions has type int *