What is the difference between an array and a pointer in C?

Array	Pointer
Fixed block of memory with its own size	A variable which stores an address
sizeof(arr) gives the total bytes	sizeof(p) gives the pointer size
Name cannot be changed to point elsewhere	Can point to any place
Memory is allocated automatically	Memory is given by the programmer, or it points to an existing one

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    int arr[5] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
    int *p = arr;

    printf("%zu %zu\n", sizeof(arr), sizeof(p));
    printf("%d %d\n", arr[2], p[2]);
    return 0;
}

Output:

The array name acts like a pointer in most expressions (it “decays”), and that is why they look alike. See Pointers and Arrays.

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