A little recap of the previous post
We built a data structure that stores a group of numbers in contiguous memory locations in RAM. We gave it a fancy name called ‘Array’.
Since they are stored in contiguous memory locations, they are positioned sequentially. Such positions are called ‘Array Indices’.
Enough of recap. Let us expand the horizon a little bit
What if we want to store a ‘series of characters’?
Series of characters = ‘String’ in the computer world. Note: Characters include special characters, spaces etc.
Okay, let’s store ‘Finch’…But wait! Computer can understand only in terms of 0 and 1(Binary). I need to find a way to convert the Characters into Binary.
To do this we will map each known character to numbers(See ASCII table) Then numbers can be easily converted into Binaries. What we did above is called ‘Character encoding’(Just jargon).
Time for real action. Let’s store
We have series of characters ‘F’ ‘i’ ’n’ ‘c’ ‘h’
Note here:
Each character fits one byte. They are all stored in a contiguous memory location. All are of the same data type.
Therefore, we can comfortably say it is an ‘Array’
Simple! Okay then let’s complicate
What if we want to store ‘series of series of characters’
Doesn’t make sense? See, series of characters = ‘String’ Series of series of characters = ‘series of strings’
It’s like storing names like ‘Finch’,’ Patrick’ etc
No of characters in ‘Finch’ = 5 No of characters in ‘Patrick’ = 7
For an array, Do we need to have some type of data? In this case, it is a character →No problem!
We need to allocate an equal number of spaces for both the strings →Problem because(5 != 7). For time being we will allocate the maximum for all(In this case 7). Note: Here for the first index(finch) →2 bytes are wasted
We need continuous memory allocations →If available okay but we need to have another plan to store it. Isn’t it?
What we have faced now is space constraint?
We have 12 bytes but not in a continuous location
So we store the values wherever possible. Then we will form an array that contains the memory locations of these characters.
This array essentially contains memory locations in sequential order. Memory locations are of integer. We have no problem with the type of data, equal space(64 bit), continuous location.
The array we built to overcome the space problem is called ‘Pointer’.
Pointer just points to memory RAM distinguishes pointer from normal integer by identifying star in front of the number
I think we overstuffed today. Let’s finish here