What are the best practices for using pointers in C?

What are the best practices for using pointers in C?

When using pointers in C, it's important to ensure proper memory management, avoid dangling pointers, and initialize pointers before use.

Can you explain what a dangling pointer is?

A dangling pointer is a pointer that does not point to a valid object or memory location, often because the object it pointed to has been deleted or gone out of scope.

How can I avoid creating dangling pointers?

To avoid dangling pointers, always set pointers to NULL after freeing the memory they point to, and be cautious with pointer scope.

What about pointer arithmetic? Are there best practices for that?

Yes, when using pointer arithmetic, ensure you stay within the bounds of the allocated memory and understand the data type sizes to avoid undefined behavior.