Thread: plz help - CP.com Tutorials

Like the tutorial says, "Pointers can be confusing." Both the concept and the syntax are confusing. But, once you "get it", you'll realize that the concept is quite simple.

If you are going to learn C++, you are going to need more than one source. Most beginning C++ books will devote an entire chapter to pointers.

Every variable lives at an address. It exists at a physical location in memory*. Most of the time, you don't care about the address of a variable.

The data held by a variable (at that variable's address) is a number. (Everything in the computer's memory is stored as a binary number.) That number might simply be an integer number, it might represent an ASCII character, or it might be the address of another variable, i.e. a pointer.

Let me say that again: A pointer is a variable that holds the address of another variable.

So, why would anyone want to use this indirect way of getting to a variable? The most common use of pointers (and references) is to make a function that affects more than one variable. Most textbooks will have an example function that swaps two values. You can't do this without using pointers or references. You can also use pointers to update a structure, or array, including c-style strings

Here's another tutorial.


*Sometimes the address reported by C++ is NOT the true physical address. For example, Windows uses virtual addressing. Dont worry, your program will still work.

Ya they are OK i voted alright to they could use some updating to be up to date with the standard but besides that the basics are there and they still teach you enough for you to get started