Can you tell me the difference of *pointer and &pointer?

Question

How can I manage to understand it and use on the codes? I am just new to C++ i wanted to learn this language tho, but everytime i wanted to continue my learning i ended up confused about the pointers and how they work, and how can i manage to use them?

Answer 1

Now let's say we have:

int* p;
int q = 10;

p is a pointer due to the declaration with a '*' (point-to) symbol. A pointer is used to point to the address of a variable. We store the address into the pointer by using the following syntax:

p = &q;

Now, we can see that I've added a '&' in front of variable q before assigning the variable to pointer p. '&' is the 'address-of' operator, which means that '&q' returns the address of variable q. Hence,

p = &q;

stores the address of variable q into p. We can now utilise the pointer, e.g.

cout << *p;

// displays 10

You can go on and do experiments with pointer values, e.g.

cout << p;
cout << &q;
cout << *p;
cout << q;
cout << *&q;

This will help you to understand the concept behind pointers.

Answer 2

Simply,
* is to learn for content
& is to learn for address

example:
int x = 9; //decleration
int *p = &x; //decleration

cout << x; // 9
cout << *p; // 9

cout << &x; // address of x
cout << p; // address of x
cout << &p; // address of p

Clear?

Answer 3

you can simply remember
if P is pointer
and A is variable which declared inside main function
then
int A;
int *P;
P=&A;

here P=&A equivalent *P=A
hence &(Address of Operator) give address...
and if you use * before pointer (*P) it act as Variable...

Answer 4

it is very simple *mean the value of variable and &mean address of that variable

Answer 5

* is used to declare a pointer variable.
eg:-
int *pnum;
while & is used to assign a memory address that the pointer has to hold.
eg:-
int a;
int *pnum;
pnum=&a;
Now here in this case pnum pointer is going to have the memory address of 'a' as the data value stored in it.

Answer 6

hi, the difference between * pointer and & pointer is simple. Let us take a variable p. Now let's initialise the pointer int *p; let's take another variable x. Assume the value of x as 10. Now, assigning the address of x to pointer p (p = &x). Therefore cout<<p , this gives the address of x. But cout<<*p gives the value stored in x (that is 10). Quite simple.

Answer 7

Read * as 'value at'
Read & as 'address of'

Answer 8

1. Any variable that has '*' before it's declaration is capable of holding address of (pointing) any variable.

2. '&' is address symbol that denotes we are dealing with address of any variable

int *a; int b;
a = &b;
int **C; //it can hold address of variable with single '*'
C = &a; //n so on

Answer 9

*pointer gives you the value stored in that memory location. The & operator returns the actual memory address which, in this case, is a pointer

Answer 10

*pointer points to the value of variable and & pointer refers to the address of the variable

Answer 11

So why even use pointers...isn't
int p;
int q = 10;
p = q;
able to complete the same task and simpler??
Tells what value a variable currently holds or transfer values between two variables??