C Program Problem: Type case int pointer with char pointer and then reprint?

Question

What will be the output of this code?

 void main(){
       int i=320;
       char *ptr=(char *)&i;
       printf("%d",*ptr); 
    }

Comments

surprising its giving 64, dont know why need to know the reason...:(

Answer 1

In Binary 320 is

   00000000 00000000 00000001 01000000
   -- 4th-- -- 3rd-- --2nd--  --1st--

There are two types of machine Little Endian and Big Endian. In Little Endian When any data is stored in memory the lower byte is stored in the lower address of the memory i.e 320 would be stored as -

01000000 00000001 00000000 00000000
   1st     2nd      3rd      4th         

Vice-Versa for Big Endian.

Now when you type casted the integer to the char the charcter pointer is accessing the value of the 1st byte which is obviously 64

Also need to mention that character pointer accesses only one byte of the memory whose address it is currently holding. If u need Further clarification ...Comment.

Comments

Please elaborate