I read in an introductory C text that it's "generally hazardous" to
introduce an unitialized pointer:
so it's better to do this:
Question 1: Why is it generally hazardous? What do I risk leaving it
uninitialized?
Question 2: If I get a segfault when I initialize the pointer, what's
the most likely cause? For example, failure to include a header?

Thanks,
Joel

Hi

The danger with "int *pointer" is that if you declare it like that, and then use it later with something like printf("%d",*pointer) the value printed out is undefined. You would usually get a segmentation fault, but not if your pointer happens to point to some part of memory that belongs to your program. So this kind of bugs can be very hard to find. Your program can work when you compile it, but if you compile it again, maybe not. With "int *pointer = NULL" you will always get a segmentation fault since you are not allowed access to the memory at 0. Then the bug will be a lot easier to find and fix.

Excellent explanation.

Thanks!
Joel