Beginning C++ Programming

Using pointers and references

In C++, you can get a pointer to where an object (a built-in type or a custom type) resides in memory using the & operator. The pointer is typed, so the code using the pointer assumes that the pointer points to the memory layout of the object of the type. Similarly, you can obtain a reference to an object, and the reference is an alias for the object, that is, operations on the reference occur on the object. A pointer (or a reference) to an instance of a derived class can be implicitly converted to a pointer (or a reference) to a base class object. This means that you can write a function that acts upon base class objects, using the behavior of the base class objects, and as long as the parameter is a pointer ...