Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours, fifth edition

Hour 13. Developing Advanced References and Pointers

What You’ll Learn in This Hour:

• How to use pass by reference to make your programs more efficient

• How to decide when to use references and when to use pointers

• How to avoid memory problems when using pointers

• How to avoid the pitfalls of using references

Passing by Reference for Efficiency

Each time you pass an object into a function by value, a copy of the object is made. Each time you return an object from a function by value, another copy is made.

With larger, user-created objects, the cost of these copies is substantial. You’ll use more memory than you need to, and your program will run more slowly.

The size of a user-created object on the stack is the sum of each of its member ...