Pointers

A pointer is a variable whose value is the address of another variable. The actual data type of the value of the pointers is a hexcadecimal that represents a memory address. The following example from here illustrates a simple use case of pointers in C++ ¹

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main () {
   int  var = 20;   // actual variable declaration.
   int  *ip;        // pointer variable 
   ip = &var;       // store address of var in pointer variable
   cout << "Value of var variable: ";
   cout << var << endl;
   // print the address stored in ip pointer variable
   cout << "Address stored in ip variable: ";
   cout << ip << endl;
   // access the value at the address available in pointer
   cout << "Value of *ip variable: ";
   cout << *ip << endl;

   return 0;
}

Value of var variable: 20 Address stored in ip variable: 0x7ff7b30f3728 Value of *ip variable: 20

Footnotes:

The results here were compiled and run inside this document itself.