title: C strings confusion
body: <p>I'm learning C right now and got a bit confused with character arrays - strings.</p>
  
  <pre><code>char name[15]="Fortran";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>No problem with this - its an array that can hold (up to?) 15 chars</p>
  
  <pre><code>char name[]="Fortran";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>C counts the number of characters for me so I don't have to - neat!</p>
  
  <pre><code>char* name;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Okay. What now? All I know is that this can hold an big number of characters that are assigned later (e.g.: via user input), but</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Why do they call this a char pointer? I know of pointers as references to variables</li>
  <li>Is this an "excuse"? Does this find any other use than in char*?</li>
  <li>What is this actually? Is it a pointer? How do you use it correctly?</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>thanks in advance,
  lamas</p>