--- title: Const, const pointers, and pointers to const things (in C) description: The const keyword in C can be applied to variables and pointers in different ways. For simple variables, const can appear before or after the type ("west... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/const-const-pointers-and-pointers-to-const-things-in-c--cxba43qds twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Const, const pointers, and pointers to const things (in C) | daily.dev og:description: The const keyword in C can be applied to variables and pointers in different ways. For simple variables, const can appear before or after the type ("west... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/const-const-pointers-and-pointers-to-const-things-in-c--cxba43qds og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/cxba43QDS.png og:image:alt: Const, const pointers, and pointers to const things (in C) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Const, const pointers, and pointers to const things (in C) **[Jacob Sorber](https://daily.dev/sources/jacobsorber)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The const keyword in C can be applied to variables and pointers in different ways. For simple variables, const can appear before or after the type ("west const" vs "east const"). With pointers, there are two distinct things you can make const: the pointer itself, or the data it points to. A "pointer to const int" means you can't change the value through dereferencing, but you can reassign the pointer. A "const pointer" means the pointer address can't change, but you can modify the pointed-to value. You can also combine both to create a const pointer to const data. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#c](https://daily.dev/tags/c) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/const-const-pointers-and-pointers-to-const-things-in-c--cxba43qds) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Const, const pointers, and pointers to const things (in C)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/const-const-pointers-and-pointers-to-const-things-in-c--cxba43qds","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/const-const-pointers-and-pointers-to-const-things-in-c--cxba43qds"},"datePublished":"2026-02-17T15:35:49.433Z","dateModified":"2026-02-17T15:36:07.144Z","description":"The const keyword in C can be applied to variables and pointers in different ways. 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