pointer concept

[karthikbalaguru]

Such questions don't have simple answers. If the compiler can detect
that 'p' is not required, it may not actually allocate any memory at
all. It is even possible (depending on the context) that the compiler
might eliminate the string literal!

Interesting way of thinking

Karthik Balaguru

 

[Richard Heathfield]

Keith Thompson said:

If there's no generated code, then the amount of allocated space is
zero (though it's still the same in the abstract machine).

C can be interpreted. Interpreters do not (necessarily) generate code in
the sense of an object file that you can examine. So do C interpreters run
their programs in 0 memory?

 

[Richard Heathfield]

CBFalconer said:

The literal may not be needed. For example:

char *o = "First str";
char *p = "str";

in which *p may well point to the "str" portion of "First str".

That's actually a good example of the string literal needing more than four
bytes.