Devry COMP220 iLab 5 Lab Report and Source Code

COMP 220 iLab
5 Lab Report and Source Code
Assignment: Lab 5 Pointers and Pointer Operators
Description: This lab will explore the use of pointers in several
ways. Pointers will be used to dynamically allocate memory for new class
objects on demand from the user, and they will be used to access class-member
functions. Pointer arithmetic will be used to access and sort class objects
according to criteria explained in the lab.
Pointers are, essentially, address variables, or variables that
hold as their value the address of other variables. In terms of memory
management, they are very powerful devices, and they more closely and efficiently
use the actual internal hardware registers of the microprocessor that the
program operates on.
Pointers also have the requirement that the pointer type must be
of the same data type as the variable, or the data that it points to or holds
the address of. The power of pointers also hints at the potential complexity of
their use, which is why this lab is focused almost entirely on several
different aspects and uses of pointers. The lab also introduces pointer arrays
and pointers to pointers.
The Resistor class created in the Week 2 lab will be used as the
class that the pointer operations will be used upon. The lab also requires the
use of accessor functions and static data members, which may need to be added
to the Resistor class definition and implementation.