Example: Pointer to First Element Access in C++

C
C++
C#
Java
Python
PHP
// Pointer to First Element Access
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    // Step 1: Declare and initialize an integer array
    int numbers[] = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50};
    int size = sizeof(numbers) / sizeof(numbers[0]);

    // Step 2: Declare an integer pointer and make it point to the first element of the array
    // The name of an array (without brackets) decays to a pointer to its first element.
    int* ptr = numbers; 
    // Alternatively, you could use: int* ptr = &numbers[0];

    // Step 3: Access elements using pointer arithmetic (ptr + index) and dereference
    cout << "Accessing elements using a pointer to the first element (offset method):" << endl;
    for (int i = 0; i < size; ++i) {
        cout << "Element at index " << i << ": " << *(ptr + i) << endl;
    }

    return 0;
}