Is there a difference between using a[i] and *(a + i)? [closed]

Answer 1

a[i] should be preferred, because it is more commonly used and so will be understood more quickly by the person reading the code.

Answer 2

Neither one is better from a language point of view since they are the same, array indexing should just be syntactic sugar for pointer arithmetic. We can see this from the draft C99 standard section 6.5.2.1 Array subscripting which says (emphasis mine):

[...]The definition of the subscript operator [] is that E1[E2] is identical to (*((E1)+(E2))).[..]

Although for others reading your code a[i] is probably more readable.

Answer 3

Both are equivalent. Neither one is preferred over other but a[i] is commonly used by programmers. a[i] = *(a + i) = i[a]

Answer 4

For readability purposes, I would definitely go with a[i].

Answer 5

I would use a[i] for clarity when reading the code.

Answer 6

As far as I'm concerned (just finished a C course), there is no difference.

Array is implemented as a pointer to the first element on the stack. So a+1 is just the address on the stack after a :)

Edit: Also, as mentioned by John Bartholomew, even though they are the same, you might want to use a[i] instead - that is the "normal" way to do it (also in other languages) :)