Problem in Understanding of Object references ??????

[isaisa]

Hi,
I am a beginner in C++ programming. I am not able to understand the difference between a pointer to a class object and reference to an object.
How C++ compiler treats reference different from pointer to an object. Please hepl.

Thanks
Sanjay

 

[chipperMDW]

Assuming you know how a pointer works, a reference is essentially a pointer with the following differences:

1) it is constant (i.e. it always points, or refers, to the same object)

2) it must be initialized when it is declared, and it automatically takes the address of the variable it is initialized to.

// e.g.
int x;
int &ref = x;    // "ref" is assigned the ADDRESS of "x"

3) whenever it appears in your code, it automatically dereferences itself.

// e.g.
int x = 5;
int &ref = x;
cout << ref;    // here, even though &quot;ref&quot; is really just an
                // address, it dereferences itself, so this
                // line is equivalent to &quot;cout << x&quot;

 

[isaisa]

Hi chipperMDW,

Thanks a lot for your help. I was not aware of the dereferencing part of it [point no 3 as you mentioned].

Thanks,
Sanjay