What is pointer arithmetic?

Pointer arithmetic refers to the operations that can be performed on pointers to navigate and manipulate memory addresses. When dealing with arrays and other data structures, pointers provide a powerful means of accessing and modifying elements in those structures. For example, if you have an array, the addition or subtraction of integers to a pointer can change its position in memory to point to different elements of the array.

When you increment a pointer, it moves to the next element of the type to which it points. This works because the pointer knows the size of the data type it points to, allowing it to calculate the correct memory address to access the next element. Such operations are crucial for iterating over arrays and for efficient memory manipulation.

The other options do not accurately capture the essence of pointer arithmetic. For example, manipulating contents within pointers relates to dereferencing and accessing values pointed to by the pointers, rather than the arithmetic operations performed on the pointers themselves. Options related to performing operations solely on basic data types or declaring pointers with complex data types are also not relevant to the concept of pointer arithmetic, which solely involves the manipulation of the address contained within pointer variables.