Double Pointer (Pointer to Pointer) in C

A pointer in C is a variable that represents the location of an item, such as a variable or an array. We use pointers to pass information back and forth between a function and its reference point.

Sometimes, a pointer can be declared to point to another pointer which points to a variable. Here, the first pointer contains the address of the second pointer. The second pointer points to an actual memory location where the data is stored, i.e. a variable. That’s the reason why we also call such pointers as double pointers.

The syntax to declare a double pointer in C is:

1	int **doubleptr;

The following C program shows how pointer-to-pointer works by printing the pointer address as well as variable address and values:

#include <stdio.h>

int main()

{

int var = 120;

int *varptr = &var;

int **doubleptr = &varptr;

printf("Value of var = %d\n", var );

printf("Value of var pointer = %d\n", *varptr );

printf("Value of double pointer = %d\n", **doubleptr);

printf("Address of var = %p\n", &var );

printf("Address of var pointer = %p\n", &varptr );

printf("Value in var pointer = %p\n", varptr );

printf("Address of double pointer = %p\n", *doubleptr);

printf("Value in double pointer = %p\n", doubleptr);

return 0;

}

The output of the above C Program is:

Value of var = 120
Value of var pointer = 120
Value of double pointer = 120
Address of var = 0x7ffe25192bfc
Address of var pointer = 0x7ffe25192c00
Value in var pointer = 0x7ffe25192bfc
Address of double pointer = 0x7ffe25192bfc
Value in double pointer = 0x7ffe25192c00

Uses of Pointer-to-Pointer (Double Pointer)

We use double-pointer when we want to protect the memory allocation or an assignment even outside of a function call.
To allocate space for a matrix or multi-dimensional arrays dynamically, you will need a double-pointer.
Another use is that if you want to have a list of characters (a word), you can use char *word, for a list of words (a sentence), you can use char **sentence, and for list of sentences (a paragraph), you can use char ***paragraph.
We can use Pointers to pointers as “handles” to memory where you want to pass around a “handle” between functions to re-locatable memory.
One of the most common uses (every C programmer should have encountered) as parameters to the main() function, i.e. int main(int argc, char **argv). Here argv is the array of arguments passed on to this program.
The linked list uses a double-pointer in different operations such as insertion and deletion.
Here are some good reads on StackOverFlow and Quora about the uses of double pointers.