Concept of void pointer in C programming

Question

Is it possible to dereference a void pointer without type-casting in the C programming language?

Also, is there any way of generalizing a function which can receive a pointer and store it in a void pointer and by using that void pointer, can we make a generalized function?

for e.g.:

void abc(void *a, int b)
{
   if(b==1)
      printf("%d",*(int*)a);     // If integer pointer is received
   else if(b==2)
      printf("%c",*(char*)a);     // If character pointer is received
   else if(b==3)
      printf("%f",*(float*)a);     // If float pointer is received
}

I want to make this function generic without using if-else statements - is this possible?

Also if there are good internet articles which explain the concept of a void pointer, then it would be beneficial if you could provide the URLs.

Also, is pointer arithmetic with void pointers possible?

Answer 1

No, it is not possible. What type should the dereferenced value have?

Answer 2

This won't work, yet void * can help a lot in defining generic pointer to functions and passing it as an argument to another function (similar to callback in Java) or define it a structure similar to oop.

Answer 3

I want to make this function generic, without using ifs; is it possible?

The only simple way I see is to use overloading .. which is not available in C programming langage AFAIK.

Did you consider the C++ programming langage for your programm ? Or is there any constraint that forbids its use?

Answer 4

You can easily print a void printer

int p=15;
void *q;
q=&p;
printf("%d",*((int*)q));

Answer 5

So far my understating on void pointer is as follows.

When a pointer variable is declared using keyword void – it becomes a general purpose pointer variable. Address of any variable of any data type (char, int, float etc.)can be assigned to a void pointer variable.

main()
{
    int *p;

    void *vp;

    vp=p;
} 

Since other data type pointer can be assigned to void pointer, so I used it in absolut_value(code shown below) function. To make a general function.

I tried to write a simple C code which takes integer or float as a an argument and tries to make it +ve, if negative. I wrote the following code,

#include<stdio.h>

void absolute_value ( void *j) // works if used float, obviously it must work but thats not my interest here.
{
    if ( *j < 0 )
        *j = *j * (-1);

}

int main()
{
    int i = 40;
    float f = -40;
    printf("print intiger i = %d \n",i);
    printf("print float f = %f \n",f);
    absolute_value(&i);
    absolute_value(&f);
    printf("print intiger i = %d \n",i);
    printf("print float f = %f \n",f);
    return 0;
}   

---

But I was getting error, so I came to know my understanding with void pointer is not correct :(. So now I will move towards to collect points why is that so.

The things that i need to understand more on void pointers is that.

We need to typecast the void pointer variable to dereference it. This is because a void pointer has no data type associated with it. There is no way the compiler can know (or guess?) what type of data is pointed to by the void pointer. So to take the data pointed to by a void pointer we typecast it with the correct type of the data holded inside the void pointers location.

void main()

{

    int a=10;

    float b=35.75;

    void *ptr; // Declaring a void pointer

    ptr=&a; // Assigning address of integer to void pointer.

    printf("The value of integer variable is= %d",*( (int*) ptr) );// (int*)ptr - is used for type casting. Where as *((int*)ptr) dereferences the typecasted void pointer variable.

    ptr=&b; // Assigning address of float to void pointer.

    printf("The value of float variable is= %f",*( (float*) ptr) );

}

A void pointer can be really useful if the programmer is not sure about the data type of data inputted by the end user. In such a case the programmer can use a void pointer to point to the location of the unknown data type. The program can be set in such a way to ask the user to inform the type of data and type casting can be performed according to the information inputted by the user. A code snippet is given below.

void funct(void *a, int z)
{
    if(z==1)
    printf("%d",*(int*)a); // If user inputs 1, then he means the data is an integer and type casting is done accordingly.
    else if(z==2)
    printf("%c",*(char*)a); // Typecasting for character pointer.
    else if(z==3)
    printf("%f",*(float*)a); // Typecasting for float pointer
}

Another important point you should keep in mind about void pointers is that – pointer arithmetic can not be performed in a void pointer.

void *ptr;

int a;

ptr=&a;

ptr++; // This statement is invalid and will result in an error because 'ptr' is a void pointer variable.

So now I understood what was my mistake. I am correcting the same.

References :

http://www.antoarts.com/void-pointers-in-c/

http://www.circuitstoday.com/void-pointers-in-c.

The New code is as shown below.

---

#include<stdio.h>
#define INT 1
#define FLOAT 2

void absolute_value ( void *j, int *n)
{
    if ( *n == INT) {
        if ( *((int*)j) < 0 )
            *((int*)j) = *((int*)j) * (-1);
    }
    if ( *n == FLOAT ) {
        if ( *((float*)j) < 0 )
            *((float*)j) = *((float*)j) * (-1);
    }
}


int main()
{
    int i = 0,n=0;
    float f = 0;
    printf("Press 1 to enter integer or 2 got float then enter the value to get absolute value\n");
    scanf("%d",&n);
    printf("\n");
    if( n == 1) {
        scanf("%d",&i);
        printf("value entered before absolute function exec = %d \n",i);
        absolute_value(&i,&n);
        printf("value entered after absolute function exec = %d \n",i);
    }
    if( n == 2) {
        scanf("%f",&f);
        printf("value entered before absolute function exec = %f \n",f);
        absolute_value(&f,&n);
        printf("value entered after absolute function exec = %f \n",f);
    }
    else
    printf("unknown entry try again\n");
    return 0;
}   

---

Thank you,

Answer 6

Because C is statically-typed, strongly-typed language, you must decide type of variable before compile. When you try to emulate generics in C, you'll end up attempt to rewrite C++ again, so it would be better to use C++ instead.