Advantages and disadvantages of pointers in c


Benefits(use) of pointers in c:

Pointers provide direct access to memory
Pointers provide a way to return more than one value to the functions
Reduces the storage space and complexity of the program
Reduces the execution time of the program
Provides an alternate way to access array elements
Pointers can be used to pass information back and forth between the calling function and called function.
Pointers allows us to perform dynamic memory allocation and deallocation.
Pointers helps us to build complex data structures like linked list, stack, queues, trees, graphs etc.
Pointers allows us to resize the dynamically allocated memory block.
Addresses of objects can be extracted using pointers

Drawbacks of pointers in c:
Uninitialized pointers might cause segmentation fault.
Dynamically allocated block needs to be freed explicitly.  Otherwise, it would lead to memory leak.
Pointers are slower than normal variables.
If pointers are updated with incorrect values, it might lead to memory corruption.
Basically, pointer bugs are difficult to debug.  Its programmers responsibility to use pointers effectively and correctly.

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