Why I need pointer?

Question

int x = 5 - - - - - variable with value
int &x - - - - adreess
Why I need *p?

Answer 1

Name
You don't need to take it into another location. You just need to change the values at the locations. That's why pointers are so useful. Suppose you have a function that takes a large amount of data and just makes a small change in the data. If you had only pass by value, the whole data needed to be copied into the function, since that's what pass by value does. This would take an enourmous amount of memory and time. On the other hand, if you use pointers, all you need to do is pass the memory address of the variable using '&' symbol and in the function, you can change the value at the location using '*' symbol.

Answer 2

pointers are faster than referencing arrays by index

Answer 3

Suppose you have bucket A containing milk and bucket B containing water. You need to swap the contents of the buckets without using a third bucket. How would you do it? You can do something not so common - just change the name of 1st bucket to B and the name of 2nd bucket to A. This is very similar to how pointers work. The buckets are variables and their contents are values and when you change the names of buckets, it's like changing the value at a memory address

Answer 4

Soumik, when I create a variable it has a location... then why I need to take it to another location?

Answer 5

didn't get it 😅slick

Answer 6

https://code.sololearn.com/cNEltVu3tDG8/?ref=app

pointers are set to a memory address

the pointer in the code i posted is set to the memory address of the variable x