Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days

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DAY 9


WEEK 2

9 Exploiting References

Yesterday, you learned how to use pointers to manipulate objects on the free
store and how to refer to those objects indirectly. References, the topic of
today’s lesson, give you almost all the power of pointers but with a much easier
syntax.
Today, you will learn


  • What references are

  • How references differ from pointers

  • How to create references and use them

  • What the limitations of references are

  • How to pass values and objects into and out of functions by reference


What Is a Reference? ..........................................................................................


A referenceis an alias; when you create a reference, you initialize it with the
name of another object, the target. From that moment on, the reference acts as
an alternative name for the target, and anything you do to the reference is really
done to the target.
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