Thread: Passing by refernce of address

Passing by reference

• Doesn't require the address-of (&) operator when passing a variable
• Doesn't require the dereference (*) operator when changing the value of a reference
• Guarantees the argument will be an object (you can't have a NULL reference)
• Guarantees the reference will always refer to the same object

Pointers are mainly used for memory management, but here's an example to contrast pointers and references:

Code:

void f (int& ref)
{
   ref++; // Pretty
}

void f (int* ptr)
{
   (*ptr)++; // Ugly
}

int main()
{
   int var = 3;

   f (var); // Pass by reference, implicit
   f (&var); // Pass by pointer, explicit

   f (NULL); // Oops! Pass by pointer

   return 0;
}

EDIT: Posted a little too late