What means * in C?

In C, the * symbol serves multiple purposes depending on its context:

1. Pointer Declaration

When used in variable declarations, * indicates that the variable is a pointer, meaning it stores the memory address of another variable.

Example:

int* ptr; // ptr is a pointer to an integer

2. Dereferencing a Pointer

When used with a pointer, the * operator is called the dereference operator. It accesses the value stored at the memory address that the pointer is pointing to.

Example:

int x = 10;
int* ptr = &x; // ptr holds the address of x
printf("%d", *ptr); // Dereferencing ptr, outputs 10