Recall that arrays are ordered collections of data elements of the same type that are contiguously stored in memory. Statically allocated single dimension arrays have the form Type arr[N] where Type is the data type, arr is the identifier associated with the array, and N is the number of data elements. Declaring an array statically as Type arr[N] or dynamically as arr = malloc(N*sizeof(Type)) allocates N x sizeof(Type) total bytes of memory.

To access the element at index i in array arr, use the syntax arr[i]. Compilers commonly convert array references into pointer arithmetic prior to translating to assembly. So arr+i is equivalent to &arr[i] and *(arr+i) is equivalent to arr[i]. Since each data element in arr is of type Type, arr+i implies that element i is stored at address arr + sizeof(Type) * i.

Table 1 outlines some common array operations and their corresponding assembly instructions. In the examples that follow, suppose we declare an int array of length 10 (e.g. int arr[10]). Assume register x1 stores the address of arr, register x2 stores the int value i and register x0 represents some variable x (also of type int). Recall that int variables take up 4 bytes of space, while int * variables take up 8 bytes of space.

Note that to access element arr[5] (or *(arr+5) using pointer arithmetic) the compiler performs a memory lookup on address arr*5*4 instead of arr*5. To understand why this is necessary, recall that any element at index i in an array is stored at address arr + sizeof(Type) * i. The compiler must therefore multiply the index by the size of the data type (in this case 4, since sizeof(int)=4) to compute the correct offset. Recall also that memory is byte-addressable; offsetting by the correct number of bytes is the same as computing an address.

As an example, consider a sample array (array) with ten integer elements ([FigArray6]):

Notice that since array is an array of integers, each element takes up exactly four bytes. Thus, an integer array with ten elements consumes 40 bytes of contiguous memory.

To compute the address of element 3, the compiler multiplies the index 3 by the data size of the integer type (4) to yield an offset of 12 (or 0xc). Sure enough, element 3 in Figure 1 is located at byte offset a₁₂.

Let’s take a look at a simple C function called sumArray() that sums up all the elements in an array:

The sumArray() function takes the address of an array and the array’s associated length and sums up all the elements in the array. Now take a look at the corresponding assembly of the sumArray() function:

When tracing the above assembly code, consider whether the data being accessed represents a pointer or a value. For example, the instruction at <sumArray+12> results in stack location sp + 28 containing a variable of type int which is initially set to 0. In contrast, the argument stored at location sp + 8 is the first argument to the function (array) which is of type int * and corresponds to the base address of the array. A different variable (which we call i) is stored at location sp + 24 and is initially set to 0.

The astute reader will notice a previously unseen instruction at line <sumArray+30> called ldrsw. The ldrsw instruction stands for "load register signed word" and converts the 32-bit int value stored at sp + 24 to a 64-bit integer value and stores it in x0. This operation is necessary because the instructions that follow perform pointer arithmetic. Recall that on 64-bit systems, pointers take up 8 bytes of space. The compiler’s use of ldrsw simplifies the process by ensuring that all data are stored in full 64-bit registers instead of their 32-bit components.

Let’s take a closer look at the seven instructions between locations <sumArray+28> and <sumArray+52>:

The compiler uses the lsl to perform a left shift on the value i stored in x0. Once this instruction completes execution, register x0 contains i << 2, or i * 4. At this point, x0 contains the number of bytes to calculate the correct offset of array[i] (or sizeof(int) = 4).

The next instruction (ldr x1, [sp, #8]) loads the first argument to the function (i.e. the base address of array) into register x1. Adding x1 to x0 in the next instruction causes x0 to contain array+i*4. Recall that the element at index i in array is stored at address array + sizeof(T) * i Therefore, x0 now contains the assembly level computation of address &array[i].

The instruction at <sumArray+40> dereferences the value located at x0, placing the value array[i] into w1. Notice the use of the component register w1, since array[i] contains a 32-bit int value! In contrast, the variable i was changed to a 64-bit integer on line <sumArray+24> since i was about to be used for address computation. Again, addresses (pointers) are stored as 64-bit words.

The last three instructions between <sumArray+44> and <sumArray+52> load the current value of total into component register w1, adds array[i] to it and stores the result in component register w0, before updating total at location sp + 28 with the new sum. Therefore, the seven instructions between <sumArray+28> and <sumArray+52> are equivalent to the line total += array[i] in the sumArray() function.