Being C/C++ programmer does necessary mean to use References and Pointers. So what are this mystic programming entities :)?

In my point of view we can see answer 2 ways: (2X2)

• Reference as data type
• Pointer as data type
• Reference as operator
• Pointer as operator

And the best by example answers:

Reference as data type


1: int iVar=123;
2: int& iVarCpy = iVar;

1: We declared variable iVar to be of data type integer and we assigned value 123.
2: Declared that variable iVarCopy is integer reference thus address and value of iVarCpy will be the same as address and value of iVar.

Pointer as data type


1: int iVar=123;
2: int* iVarCpy = &iVar;

2: We declared that variable iVarCopy is integer pointer thus this variable holds an address as a value and we assigned the address of iVar to iVarCpy.

Reference as operator


1: int iVar=123;
2: cout << "The address of iVal is: " << &iVal;

2: the expression "&iVal" is returning the address of iVal.

Pointer as operator

We can apply the pointer operator only to variable which is of "Pointer as data type" thus "int*".


1: int iVar=123;
2: int* iVarCpy= &iVar;
3: cout << "The variable of *iValCpy is: " << *iVarCpy;

3: The expression *iVarCpy will give us the same value as iVar. We can say that
*iVarCpy == iVar and iVarCpy == &iVar thus &iVarCpy != &iVar