pset 5 The dictionary pointer, why is it a char*?

Question

Just wondering, why is the dictionary pointer passed into load a char* instead of a file pointer? Since the dictionaries to be loaded are files.

Answer 1

The parameter being passed in is not a file pointer, it's the name of the file, a text string. That name is used inside of load() to open the file pointer locally.

A pointer could be passed, but since parameters are passed by copy, it arguably makes a bit more sense to pass the file name in as a text string and let the pointer be opened locally inside the function instead of generating two file pointers (one in main() and a second to hold a copy of the pointer in load() ), particularly since the dictionary file is only used and accessed inside of load().

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