What does *ArrayName do here?

[jenniferruurs]

I am following a tutorial on the internet and the code of the tutorial is bellow.
What does *ArrayName do here? And why has it a pointer (and I don't see a Reference)

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

template <class TypeName>
void Proceed(TypeName *ArrayName);

int main(){
    char String1[]= "String";
    int NumArray1[]={1,2,3,4,5,6};
    Proceed(String1);
    Proceed(NumArray1);
    Proceed("Test");
}

template <class TypeName>
void Proceed(TypeName *ArrayName){
    for(int i=0; i<6; i++){
        cout << *ArrayName << endl;
        ++ArrayName;
    }
    cout<< endl;
}

[Repeater]

cout << *ArrayName << endl;

Here, ArrayName is a pointer. * here means "the thing this pointer is pointing at".

[jonnin]

it is identical to ArrayName[0] if you prefer that notation

which means that your loop would look like this:

for(int i=0; i<6; i++){
cout << ArrayName[i] << endl; //don't need arrayname++ stuff

templates and such indicate a desire to reuse the code, but that hard coded 6 is going to be trouble someday. pass the 6 in as a 'size' variable maybe (better, use vector).

Proceed(NumArray1); //passes in a pointer, ok
Proceed("Test"); //I think this may be illegal in standard c++. Also test0 … you will iterate into at least one garbage location even if it compiles, because test0 is only 5 and that hard coded 6... it could also crash here, or it can run just fine as it does in the shell compiler in the forum. But its risky.

[Ganado]

Also, as a function parameter,
void foo(T* arr) { }
is equivalent to
void foo(T arr[]) { }