Pointers in C++
A pointer is a data type which holds the address of other
data type.
The “&” operator is called “address off" operator, and the "*”
operator is called “value at” dereference operator. An example
program for pointers is shown in figure 1.
Figure 1: Pointer Program
As shown in figure 1, at 1 st line an integer variable “a” is initialized
with the value “3". At the 2nd line, the address of integer variable
"a” is assigned to the integer pointer variable “b". At the 3 rd line,
the address of the integer pointer variable "b” is printed. The
output of the following program is shown in figure 2.
Figure 2: Pointer Program Output
As shown in figure 2, the address of the integer pointer variable
"b” is printed. The main thing to note here is that the address
printed by the variable “b" is the address of integer variable "a”
because we had assigned the address of variable “a” to the
integer pointer variable “b". To clarify, we will print both variable
"a" and variable "b" addresses, which are shown in figure 3.
Figure 3: Pointer Program Example 2
As shown in figure 3, now we printed both variable “a” and
variable “b” addresses. The output for the following program is
shown in figure 4.
Figure 4: Pointer Program Example 2 Output
As shown in figure 4, both variables "a” and “b” have the same
addresses, but in actual, this is the address of the variable "a”, the
variable “b" is just pointing to the address of the variable "a”.
To see the value of variable “a" using a pointer variable, we can
use the "*" dereference operator. An example of the dereference
operator program is shown in figure 5.
Figure 5: Dereference Operator example
As shown in figure 5, the value at address “b” is printed. The main
thing to note here is that the value printed by the pointer variable
“b” will be the value of variable “a” because the pointer variable
“b" is pointing to the address of the variable "a”. The output for
the following program is shown in figure 6.
Figure 6: Dereference Operator Example
#include<iostream>
Using namespace std;
Int main(){
// What is a pointer? -- Data type which holds the address of
other data types
Int a=3;
Int* b;
B = &a;
// & - (Address of) Operator
Cout<<”The address of a is “<<&a<<endl;
Cout<<”The address of a is “<<b<<endl;
// * - (value at) Dereference operator
Cout<<”The value at address b is “<<*b<<endl;
Return 0;
}
