A while back I was studying about pointers in C, and every now and then the '&' symbol was being used to access the memory of the variable. It made me wonder how the heck this symbol works.
So I did a conversation about this with chatGPT, and below is a very concise form of that conversation in the form of a Q&A thingy.
Q: How is the '&' symbol defined in the language syntax?
A: The '&' symbol is defined in the syntax of C and C++ as part of the language specification, and it's implemented through the compiler and hardware support.
Q: Can you provide an example of how '&' is used in code to represent addresses?
A: Sure, here's a simplified Python example demonstrating the concept:
x = 42
address_of_x = hex(id(x))
print(f"The address of x is {address_of_x}")
Q: Why are memory addresses often represented in hexadecimal?
A: Hexadecimal representation is more compact, aligns well with binary, enhances readability, is traditional in low-level programming, and is widely supported by debugging tools.
Q: Can memory addresses be represented in decimal instead of hexadecimal?
A: Yes, memory addresses can be represented in decimal, but hexadecimal is the common convention for its advantages in low-level programming.
In summary, the '&' symbol in languages like C and C++ represents memory addresses, and this convention is specific to those languages. Hexadecimal is commonly used to represent memory addresses for its compactness and alignment with binary.