Well, the information isn't copied... so if you modified the incoming array you modify the original, so in that sense it has to be a pointer. Arrays and pointer

Well, the information isn't copied... so if you modified the incoming array you modify the original, so in that sense it has to be a pointer. Arrays and pointers are analogous in C except when they are declared, as there is an implicit allocation of information. Since we don't want this when it comes to array arguments, it simply decays.