C++ Pointers

[cgarza]

Trying to understand a program containing structures and pointers. I find pointers difficult to understand.

Here is a piece of a program I am studying. The parts that confuse me i placed in bold. The two items on bottom I assume refer to functions and are passing pointers but i dont understand the "NODE*" part and i cant seem to find a reference anywhere like it. And of course the other bold selected in the struct.

struct Node
{
	char fname[NAME_SIZE];
	char lname[NAME_SIZE];
	char ssn[SSN_SIZE];
	[B]Node* next;[/B]
};
void searchNode(Node*,char*);
[B]Node* buildList(void);
Node* insertNode(Node*,Node*);[/B]

ALSO:
To make sure I am also understanding this.
Am i right in assuming this is initializing to value 0?

Node* head=(Node*)0;

Can someone explain it to me?

[tracknut]

The "Node*" in front of each of the function definitions says that they will be returning a pointer to a Node structure.

And yes, initializing to zero, or maybe more accurately the address zero.

Dave

[dotnetmind]

Understand C++ Pointers

Use of pointers requires far more than syntax understanding. Requires expertise only time will give you.


This explanation, pretty simple