Are pointers useless nowdays?

Question

Pointers are very hard to understand and I think they are useless

Answer 1

Try to convince those C masters about your paradigm, I'd like to see how it goes.

TBH I do find pointer as one subject that is particularly hard to understand. Nevertheless, I don't go telling or judging something is pointless or useless just because I can't (yet, fully) understand it.

You may find learning about pointers will become even harder, from this moment on, because you had successfully dictated yourself that pointers are useless and pointless. You have developed displeasure in learning that particular subject, leading your mind to avoid it out of dislikes.

P.S. Even to this date, pointer still be a special subject for me to learn; even hard as it may be : )

Answer 2

Useless in simple programs and practices but super useful in actual professional ones. They are extremely effective in memory management and once you understand the syntax and the concept behind them you can make swift and fast programs which is a must to make "great" apps and systems.
If you don't like studying pointers but still want your programs to run swiftly, I recommend you learn Java since it eliminates the pointer system but still is effective in memory management.

Answer 3

If you need to write code in C, you're going to need pointers as well.

If you program in a higher language like Java or even Python, you can't use them.

But that doesn't mean that no pointing is being done: There's just a 'mechanism' doing it for you.

There's the advantage of comfortability and the disadvantage, that you have less control.

Writing in a higher language is like driving an automatic car and letting a repairman doing the ugly work.

Writing in raw C is like driving a manual and repairing/tweaking the engine yourself.

It would depend on the situation, deciding which is better.