مؤشرات C والسلاسل والأنواع

When Zig imports C, each C type maps to a Zig one. An int becomes c_int, so widths match the C ABI exactly.

Zig provides ABI-matching names like c_int, c_uint, c_long, and c_char so your values line up with what C expects.

A raw C pointer becomes the special [*c]T type. It can be null and converts loosely, mirroring C's flexible pointers.

The [*c] type bridges C's any-length, maybe-null pointers. It coerces to and from Zig slices and pointers where it can.

A C string is just a pointer to bytes ending in a zero. There is no length stored, only the null terminator.

Write a C-style string with the sentinel form. The type [*:0]const u8 marks bytes that end in a 0.

Zig string literals are already null-terminated, so you can hand them straight to C functions expecting a char pointer.

To turn a C string into a Zig slice, use std.mem.span, which walks to the null byte to find the length.

C's void* shows up as ?*anyopaque in Zig. You cast it back to a concrete pointer type before using it.

Bridging pointer types across the C boundary uses @ptrCast, which reinterprets a pointer without changing the address.

The safe habit is to match C's exact types: use c_int for int and span for strings, so nothing is silently wrong.

Recall how Zig turns a C string into a usable slice.

You learned that C types map to ABI names like c_int, C pointers use [*c], and std.mem.span turns C strings into slices. 🎯