The pointer also points to a value of a specific type - the value at the address the point holds. The pointer itself, in this case, is p . All computers have memory , also known as RAM or Random Access Memory . For example, your computer might have 16 or 32 or 64 megabytes of RAM installed right now. Memory can be thought of simply as an array of bytes.
Memory addresses act just like the indexes of a normal array.
It can also group bytes together as it needs to to form larger variables, arrays, and structures. For example, a floating point variable consumes four contiguous bytes in memory. When the program runs, the computer reserves space for the variable f somewhere in memory. That location has a specific address, in this case 248,440. The computer is always thinking of memory in terms of addresses and values at those addresses.