Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days

intOne: 5

rSomeRef: 5

&intOne: 0x3500

&rSomeRef: 0x3500

OUTPUT

258 Day 9

Because the final two lines print memory addresses that might be unique to

your computer or to a specific run of the program, your output might differ.

CAUTION

Once again,rSomeRefis initialized as a reference to intOne. This time, the

addresses of the two variables are printed in lines 15 and 16, and they are

identical.

C++ gives you no way to access the address of the reference itself because it is not

meaningful as it would be if you were using a pointer or other variable. References are

initialized when created, and they always act as a synonym for their target, even when

the address-of operator is applied.

For example, if you have a class called President, you might declare an instance of that

class as follows:

President George_Washington;

You might then declare a reference to Presidentand initialize it with this object:

President &FatherOfOurCountry = George_Washington;

Only one Presidentexists; both identifiers refer to the same object of the same class.

Any action you take on FatherOfOurCountryis taken on George_Washingtonas well.

Be careful to distinguish between the &symbol on line 9 of Listing 9.2, which declares a

reference to an integer named rSomeRef, and the &symbols on lines 15 and 16, which

return the addresses of the integer variable intOneand the reference rSomeRef. The com-

piler knows how to distinguish these two uses by the context in which they are being

used.

ANALYSIS

Normally, when you use a reference, you do not use the address-of operator.

You simply use the reference as you would use the target variable.

NOTE