Pointer Initialization (char and int)

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In C language if

char *ptr1 = "something";

is allowed, then why not

int *ptr2 = {1,2,3};

not allowed?

pointers initialization c
1 Answers

In the first case,

 char *ptr1 = "something";

"something" boils down to a pointer to the first element, of the string literal, yields a type char*, so the type is compatible and assignment in the initialization is valid.

On the other hand,

int *ptr2 = {1,2,3};

{1,2,3} is a brace enclosed initializer list, not an int *, so it's invalid operation and not allowed.

What you can do, actually is to use a compound literal for the intialization, something like

int *ptr2 = (int []){1,2,3};

where ptr2 will point to the first element of the array composed of the values given in the brace enclosed initializer list.

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