A reference variable in C++ is a formal parameter of a function call that automatically dereferences itself, as if it were a pointer, into a reference to the original value in the calling routine.
You declare the reference type in the function declaration and prototype, but the compiler automatically adds the reference (&) operator on call, and the dereference (*) operator on use.
An alias is a reference, an alternate name for a variable or constant. You can assign the address of any variable or constant to a reference of the same type. A reference is a bit like a constant pointer to the type but, unlike a pointer, a reference has no address of its own thus you cannot store references. More importantly, references can never be NULL. They are simply an alternative name by which you can refer to an existing variable or constant. When you assign a value to an existing reference to a variable, you are assigning the value to the variable itself. When you pass a reference to a function, you are passing the address of the value being referred to, and that address is assigned to the function's reference argument and is local to the function. This is not unlike passing a pointer, but pointers may be NULL, references are guaranteed to be non-NULL (a NULL reference invalidates your program). Note that C++ references are not the same as C reference variables or constants. In C, a reference variable is simply a non-const pointer, while a reference constant is a constant pointer. Hence pointers can be dereferenced (both in C and C++). But in C++, a reference is neither a variable nor a pointer, but is constant (it always refers to the same object and cannot be reassigned once assigned).
Call by reference means calling a function using a reference to a variable or a pointer. You call a function by passing refrences to a variable. For eg: void x(int &a) { a=2; } void main() { int s=3; x(s); } OR void a(int &c) { c=5;}void main(){ int *p; *p=2a(*p);}
A constant is a variable that does not change. The correct term is constant variable.
pointer: to access data by address reference: there is no reference in C language
type variable {[optional array size]} {= optional initializer};
I can tell you that it is not an illegal variable name in C. I do not currently have a C++ compiler installed, but I would assume that it would also be valid in C++.
Not initialized variable: int myInt; Initialized variable: int myInt = 10;
No.
same the types used in C. that is int...char...float...
You cannot store references. A reference is nothing more than an alias, an alternate name for an existing variable or constant. References are primarily used when passing variables to functions such that the function can operate upon the variable itself -- known as passing by reference. The function refers to the variable by a different name, an alias, but it is the same variable. By contrast, when passing a variable by value the function uses a copy of that variable, assigning the variable's value to that copy. References are often confused with pointers, primarily because C uses the term to mean a pointer (hence the term, dereferencing). But in C++ a reference is a separate entity altogether. Unlike a reference, a pointer is a variable in its own right, one that can be used to store a memory address. Since a pointer has storage, you can store a pointer in a data file. However, in reality you are only storing the pointer's value -- a memory address -- not an actual pointer. Pointers and references are similar insofar as they can both refer to an object. A pointer does this by storing the memory address of the object, while a reference refers directly to the object itself. Thus if you have a pointer and a reference to the same object, the pointer's value is exactly the same as the address of the reference. Therefore the only way you can store a reference is by storing the object being referred to, not the reference itself.
In JAVA, all variables are reference variables, and there are no pointer variables. Even though the platform may implement them as pointers, they are not available as such. In C, no variables are reference variables. They are a C++ enhancement. In C++ a reference variable is syntactically the same as a pointer variable, except that the use of the indirection operator (*) is implicit. You do declare reference variables slightly differently than pointer variables but, once you do so, they can be treated as non-pointer variables. Reference variables also cannot be redefined once they have been initialized to point to some object. They are const. Structurally, there is no difference between a pointer variable and a reference variable. They are both still pointers. The compiler just makes it easier to treat reference variables and non-pointer variables the same way.
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