C Pointer address of difference

Question

int main() {
    
    int *x;
    int *y;

    y = x;

    printf("%p %p", &x,&y); // prints 0061FF1C 0061FF18
    printf("%p %p", x, y); // prints 00400080 00400080

    return 0;
}

Why don't these print the same thing? I thought using just the x and the &x would get to the same value. Also, why are the bottom ones matching if the top one's arent?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66055564/c-pointer-address-of-difference

Answer 1

When you say y = x in this case it just means that y assumes whatever pointer value x happened to have. You never initialized x with a value, so it's just some random junk.

The address of x and y themselves is going to be different. These are two separate variables representing two separate pointers. You can assign their value to be the same, but their address remains distinct.

You're probably confusing this behaviour with:

int x = 5;
int* y = &x;

Where now y == &x but &x and &y continue to remain distinct.

As C does not have references, you really don't have situations where two independent variables are ever the same address.