What is the difference between a pointer and a reference variable?

Answer 1

Ultimately they equate to the same meaning. When you make a primitive variable or an object within memory, some people call this variable a "pointer" to the created value or object. Further more a reference is mostly used when refering to object that have been created. Finally like i said these two words are quite similar and can be thrown back and forth for meaning the same thing.

Answer 2

Both are similar in that they both hold an address, but there are some differences:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/57483/what-are-the-differences-between-a-pointer-variable-and-a-reference-variable-in