What is the difference between void and null pointers.Give suitable example in support of your answer

Database System Concepts
7th Edition
ISBN:9780078022159
Author:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan
Publisher:Abraham Silberschatz Professor, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan
Chapter1: Introduction
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What is the difference between void and null pointers.Give suitable example in support of your answer

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Step 1

Null pointers:

A pointer variable assigned with the value NULL irrespective of the datatype of a pointer variable. A null pointer is one which is not pointing to anything. It is assigned a null value. If there is no address to assign to a pointer, it is considered a good practice to set it to null. Every pointer type like int *, char * have a null pointer value.
Syntax: <data type> *<variable name> = NULL;
Example: int *ptr = NULL;
char *ptr = '\0';

Step 2

Void pointers:

A pointer variable of the datatype VOID is called void pointer. It may contain the address of any other datatype pointer variable. A void pointer is one which does not have any data type associated with it. It can be assigned a value of any type. Also known as the general-purpose pointer, it is a C convention for a raw address. It is capable of storing addresses of any data type.
Syntax: void *<data type>;
Example: void *ptr;
int a; char c;
ptr = &a; //ptr changes to integer pointer as address of integer is assigned to it
ptr = &c; //ptr changes to character pointer as address of character is assigned to it.

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