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