23-multi-pointers.md

Multi-Pointers

[*]T is a many-item pointer — like a C pointer. It has no length.

const std = @import("std");

pub fn main() void {
    var arr = [_]u32{ 10, 20, 30, 40 };

    // Coerce array to many-pointer
    const p: [*]u32 = &arr;

    std.debug.print("{}\n", .{p[0]}); // 10
    std.debug.print("{}\n", .{p[2]}); // 30

    // Arithmetic
    const p2 = p + 1;
    std.debug.print("{}\n", .{p2[0]}); // 20

    // Convert back to a slice with known length
    const s: []u32 = p[0..arr.len];
    std.debug.print("len: {}\n", .{s.len});
}

Use [*]T when interoperating with C APIs. Prefer slices ([]T) in pure Zig code.

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