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Advanced C Programming: Pointers (Udemy.com)

Master pointers, addresses and memory allocation in C

Created by: Huw Collingbourne

Last updated August 2019

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What you will learn

  • Pointers and addresses
  • Indirection and multiple indirection
  • Generic pointers and casts
  • Memory allocation and reallocation
  • Pointer arithmetic
  • Singly and doubly linked lists
  • Queues and stacks
  • Deep and shallow copying
  • Common pointer errors

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Quality Score

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Overall Score : 92 / 100

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Course Description

To be an expert C programmer you need to master the use of pointers. This course explains pointers in real depth. It explains pointer variables, pointer arithmetic, indirection, memory allocation, how to create and maintain linked lists and how to use function pointers. In fact, by the time you finish this course, you will know pointers inside out. You will understand what they are, how they work and how to make sure that they don’t make your programs crash!

This is not a course for beginners. It is aimed at programmers who already have a good working knowledge of C programming and who need to take the next step in mastering C by gaining a deep understanding of pointers.

If you’ve struggled with pointers  and can’t quite figure out what all those ‘arrow diagrams’ really mean or what exactly is the relationship between pointers and addresses, this is the course for you. In a series of short, tightly-targeted lessons, you will learn all about: 

  • computer memory and how pointers access it
  • how memory is allocated 
  • why copying data using pointers can cause program errors
  • why some pointers are ‘generic’ 
  • what happens when you ‘cast’ pointers to specific types
  • how to create singly and doubly linked lists
  • how to use stacks and queues
  • how to avoid memory leaks and other common problems
  • ...and much more.

The source code for all the example programs is provided, so if you need to try out my code you can load it and run it in your preferred C IDE or code editor.

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Instructor Details

Huw Collingbourne

  Huw Collingbourne is the technology director at SapphireSteel Software, developers of programming tools for Microsoft Visual Studio. He is author of The Little Book Of C, The Little Book Of Pointers and The Little Book Of Recursion from Bitwise Books and of The Book Of Ruby from No Starch Press. He runs Bitwise Courses and teaches courses on a range of programming topics. 

     Huw has been a programmer for more than 30 years. He is a well-known technology writer in the UK. For over ten years he wrote the Delphi and Java programming column for PC Plus Magazine.  He has also written numerous opinion and programming columns (including tutorials on C#, C++, Smalltalk and Ruby) for a number of computer magazines, such as Computer Shopper, PC Pro, and PC Plus. 

     In the 1980s he was a pop music journalist and interviewed most of the New Romantic stars, such as Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Adam Ant, Boy George, and Depeche Mode. He is now writing a series of 1980s murder mysteries. 

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Reviews

4.6

3,772 ratings on Udemy

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By Shubhangi Mane on 12/22/2025

so many topics in in one vedio

By Tomáš Antoš on 9/6/2024

I think this is excellent resource for understanding pointers. It might seem bit mundane, but in fact it covers the topic very well and the explanations are excellent. Though it sometimes take more effort to understand the subject, but that's not issue with the course, but rather the subject it teaches. I recommend not to give up and give the lesson time if understanding does not come easy. This course if definitely worth 5 stars.

By Mykhailo Seniutovych on 11/5/2022

Generally a good course, although I would not call it an advanced course. It's hardly an intermidiate course. For someone who is quite an experienced developer, the information in this course is relatively basic. I really expected a more deep five into pointers and memory, like for example to disassemble the code and see what pointers really are on the machine instructions level, see what dynamic memory allocation like malloc is under the hood (how it uses system calls to allocate memory), and some other advanced concepts.

By Truman Beal on 12/7/2020

Huw does a wonderful job explaining some of the more difficult things that we come across in world of Computer Science. I've actually used pointers for about a decade or more in day to day, even though I learned about them in the mid 90's. This is one topic that seems to never get the full focus it deserves, so I wanted to hear some explanation from several experts in the field in order to gain a more solid foundation myself. So far, this course has really been wonderful at filling in those small but crucial details.

By Revan Datta on 10/20/2020

Very clear and good understanding from the very foundation

By Youssef El Saleh saleh on 10/4/2020

i am very happy with the course and the way he teach the pointers with details and is very clear i can give him 10 stars

By Anonymous on 10/1/2020

good resource to take a deeper look into pointer

By Michael Mandeville on 9/20/2020

This is the perfect middle-ground for someone who's written tons of C applications, but could never figure out the next step towards system programming. Love it!

By Just If on 9/17/2020

Up until now it seems like what I expected, I certainly have a better understanding of what exactly C is doing behind the scenes. Very well explained.

By Abhay Shanker Pathak on 9/15/2020

Detailed information about Pointer.

By Alexander Popov on 9/13/2020

First of I thought it would be an advanced topic but I already learned pretty much the same in another course "C for the beginners", second there's lack of challenges to practice on..., debugging section isn't exactly on topic...

By Nayni Shah on 9/11/2020

I really had a lot of problems while coding but this course brushed up my basics and also made it easier for me to use pointers. will highly recommend everyone to join this course.

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