Beginning C++ Programming

Passing by value and passing by reference

By default, the compiler will pass parameters by value, that is, a copy is made. If you pass a custom type, then its copy constructor is called to create a new object. If you pass a pointer to an object of a built-in type or custom type, then the pointer will be passed by value, that is, a new pointer is created on the function stack for the parameter and it is initialized with the memory address passed to the function. This means that, in the function, you can change the pointer to point to other memory (this is useful if you want to use pointer arithmetic on that pointer). The data that the pointer points to will be passed by a reference, that is, the data remains where it is, outside of the function, ...