c - Pointer subtraction confusion

Question

When we subtract a pointer from another pointer the difference is not equal to how many bytes they are apart but equal to how many integers (if pointing to integers) they are apart. Why so?

Answer 1

The idea is that you're pointing to blocks of memory

+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | mem
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| 18 | 24 | 17 | 53 | -7 | 14 | data
+----+----+----+----+----+----+

If you have int* p = &(array[5]) then *p will be 14. Going p=p-3 would make *p be 17.

So if you have int* p = &(array[5]) and int *q = &(array[3]), then p-q should be 2, because the pointers are point to memory that are 2 blocks apart.

When dealing with raw memory (arrays, lists, maps, etc) draw lots of boxes! It really helps!