What is the difference between a regular array, and array of pointers

I'm trying to understand the difference between these two pieces of code in C:

int array[] = { 1, 2, 3 }; // init a regular array


int *numList = {1, 2, 3}; //  init an array of pointers?

I understand that the first line initializes a regular array of integers. However, the second line seems to be initializing a pointer or an array of pointers (I'm not sure). Could someone explain:

1.What exactly is happening in the second line of code?

2.Why doesn't the second line compile as expected (or does it)?

3.When would we want to use a pointer initialization like this (if at all), compared to a regular array?

I'm trying to understand if there are specific scenarios where using the second approach would be preferable over the first.

Thank you in advance for your help!

You're conflating some concepts. As @ikegami noted, your second line:

int *numList = {1, 2, 3};

Gets treated as:

int *numList = 1;

Which not an array, nor a valid pointer. If you want to create an array of pointers, you use the same syntax as normal arrays, with the type being a pointer:

int* numList[] = {
    &array[0],
    &array[1],
    &array[2]
};

Will create an array of 3 int pointers, pointing to your original array's elements.