Pointers & Memory Location.

Question

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
int num1 = 50, *num2 = &num1;

cout << *num2 << endl; //This prints out 50
cout << num2; // This prints out a hexadecimal.

return 0;
}

Question: Why does the code run this way? Isn’t num2 supposed to equal the value stored in the memory for num1 while *num2 equals the address as stated in the code ?

Answer 1

When you declared this line:

int *num2 = &num1;

You assigned num2 as the address of num1. Notice the difference:

// declaration of pointer
// num2 is now address of num1
// num2 = &num1
int *num2 = &num1

// num2 is now address of num3
num2 = &num3

// dereferencing pointer
// prints num3
cout << *num2;

Anyway, your confusion might be because of the declaration. You can instead write it this way:

// declare (int*) with name num1
int* num1 = &num2