What is the use of the '&' symbol in C++?

The & symbol is used as an operator in C++. It is used in 2 different places, one as a bitwise and operator and one as a pointer address of operator.

Bitwise AND

The bitwise AND operator (&) compares each bit of the first operand to that bit of the second operand. If both bits are 1, the bit is set to 1. Otherwise, the bit is set to 0. Both operands to the bitwise AND operator must be of integral types. 

Example

#include <iostream>  
using namespace std;
 
int main() {  
   unsigned short a = 0x5555;      // pattern 0101 ...  
   unsigned short b = 0xAAAA;      // pattern 1010 ...  

   cout << hex << ( a & b ) << endl;
}

Output

This gives the output −

0

Address Of operator

C++ provides two-pointer operators, which are Address of Operator (&) and Indirection Operator (*).

A pointer is a variable that contains the address of another variable or you can say that a variable that contains the address of another variable is said to "point to" the other variable. A variable can be any data type including an object, structure or again pointer itself.

The address of Operator (&), and it is the complement of *. It is a unary operator that returns the address of the variable(r-value) specified by its operand. For example,

Example

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main () {
   int  var;
   int  *ptr;
   int  val;

   var = 3000;

   // take the address of var
   ptr = &var;

   // take the value available at ptr
   val = *ptr;
   cout << "Value of var :" << var << endl;
   cout << "Value of ptr :" << ptr << endl;
   cout << "Value of val :" << val << endl;

   return 0;
}

Output

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Value of var :3000
Value of ptr :0xbff64494
Value of val :3000