C: What do you mean by a "dangling pointer"?
What do you mean by a "dangling pointer"?
A pointer pointing to an object that has been destroyed is called a "dangling pointer." For example, the pointer ptr in the function given below is a dangling pointer.
main( )
{
int *ptr ;
int *f( ) ;
ptr = f( ) ;
printf ( "%d", *ptr ) ;
}
int *f( )
{
int a = 10 ;
return ( &a ) ;
}Here it appears that address of a would be collected in ptr and through *ptr we would be able to access 10. This however is not possible because by the time address of a is collected in ptr, a is already dead. So you have a pointer containing an address, and the object at this address is long dead. Thus ptr becomes dangling pointer.
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