C++ Primer Plus

How Pointers Enable Array-Processing Functions

The key to the program in Listing 7.5 is that C++, like C, in most contexts treats the name of an array as if it were a pointer. Recall from Chapter 4, “Compound Types,” that C++ interprets an array name as the address of its first element:

cookies == &cookies[0]  // array name is address of first element

(There are a few exceptions to this rule. First, the array declaration uses the array name to label the storage. Second, applying sizeof to an array name yields the size of the whole array, in bytes. Third, as mentioned in Chapter 4, applying the address operator & to an array name returns the address of the whole array; for example, &cookies would be the address of a 32-byte block of memory if ...