very nice!
--- In [email protected], "Brett McCoy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On Jan 9, 2008 9:32 PM, onecrazeemom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Hello all. I am just a beginning programmer. I have started
taking a
> > C++ home study course. I am able, mostly, to understand what I
have
> > done so far. But now I am working on pointers and references...
and I
> > am a little confused. What is the point of a reference if a
pointer
> > seems to do the same thing?
>
> Syntactically, references are a lot cleaner when passed as arguments
> into a function or method (pass-by-reference).
>
> -- using pointers (C-style pass by reference)
>
> void some_function(int *x, int *y);
>
> int x, y;
>
> some_function(&x, &y);
>
> -- using references (C++ style pass by reference)
>
> void some_function(int & x, int & y);
>
> int x, y;
>
> some_function(x, y);
>
> However, references can't be dereferenced like a pointer can ... a
> reference is more like an alias for an already existing variable.
You
> also can't have a reference to NULL, but you can have a NULL
pointer.
>
> For referenced objects, you use the . when using members, instead of
> ->, as below:
>
> MyObj obj;
> MyObj *newObj = new MyObj; //dynamically allocated memory, you have
to
> delete when done
> MyObj & anotherObj = obj; //anotherObj is a reference to obj,
changing
> anotherObj changes obj, no deleting necessary!
>
> obj.method()1;
> newObj->method1();
> anotherObj.method1(); //same as calling obj.method1();
>
> When you get to studying operator= and copy constructors in C++, you
> will see where references are used quite a bit
>
> -- Brett
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> "In the rhythm of music a secret is hidden;
> If I were to divulge it, it would overturn the world."
> -- Jelaleddin Rumi
>
