Assigning char pointer to array

Question

``` void fun(char arr[]){ cout<<arr;//successfully received and printed } main(){ char *ptr="hello"; fun(ptr); /* char arr2[]=ptr; throws error....initialiser fails to determine size of arr2 */ getch(); }` ``` Why am I allowed to pass a char pointer and receive it in array,but can not directly assign char pointer to array.As far I know,assignment takes place implicitly when we pass parameters to a function.So why is this difference in behavior?

Accepted Answer

The declaration

```
void fun(char arr[]){  
```

is equivalent to

```
void fun(char *arr){  
```

which means that, in this case, no need of size of character array to be passed to the function. Now `arr` points to the same location as of `ptr`. But in case of

```
char arr2[] = ptr;  
```

compiler doesn't know about the size of `ptr` as it is a pointer to first character of string literal `hello` and hence the compiler fails out to determine the size for array `arr2` and it throws the error. You must have to specify the size of array. The size of character array can be omitted only with the initializer like;

```
char arr2[] = "Hello World";   
```

In this case compiler determines the size of array `arr2` from the size of string `Hello World`.

Assigning char pointer to array

Solution

Problem