GATE CS 2026 Set 2 — Question 60
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Programming & Data Structures → C Programming → Pointers & Pointer Arithmetic
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Question
Consider the following ANSI-C program.The output of this program is ____________. (answer in integer)Note: Assume that the program compiles and runs successfully.
#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
int *ptr, a, b, c;
a=5; b=11; c=20;
ptr=&a; *ptr=c; ptr=&c;
a=*(&b); c=*ptr-a;
printf("%d",c);
return(0);
}
Correct answer
9 to 9
Solution
Let's trace the execution of the program step-by-step:
1.Initialization:
a = 5b = 11c = 20
ptr = &a;:ptrnow points to the memory location of variablea.*ptr = c;: The value at the address stored inptr(which isa) is updated to the value ofc. Thus,abecomes .ptr = &c;:ptris updated to point to the memory location of variablec.
a = *(&b);:&bis the address ofb, and*(&b)dereferences it to get the value ofb. Thus,abecomes .c = *ptr - a;: Sinceptrpoints toc,*ptris the current value ofc(). Therefore,c = 20 - 11 = 9.
printf("%d", c);prints the final value ofc, which is .
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