Go4Expert - Reference and Pointer

Reference is the other name given to the same variable. Pointer is new variable created which can contain address of another variable.

Try an experiment

Code:

# include<iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()

{



int i = 90; // variable

int &j = i;  // reference 

int *P;   //  pointer

P =&i;



cout<<endl<< "address of variable :i" <<&i;



cout<< endl << "address of reference: j" <<&j;

cout<<endl<<"address of pointer : P"<<&P;

return 0;

}

OUTPUT:

 address of variable i: 0012FEDC

address of reference j: 0012FEDC

address of pointer p: 0012FEE0

so you see the address of i and reference j is same , address of pointer P is different.