Difference Between Pointer and Reference

In this post, we will understand the difference between pointer and reference.

Pointer

• It can be initialized to any value.

• It can be initialized any time after its declaration.

• It can be assigned to point to a NULL value.

• It can be dereferenced using the ‘*’ operator.

• It can be changed to point to a different variable of the same type only.

Example

int val = 5;
//code//
int *p = &val;

Reference

• It has to be initialized when it is declared.

• It can’t be a NULL value.

• It can be used by a name.

• Once it has been initialized to a variable, it can’t be changed to refer to a variable object.

Example

int val = 52;
int &ref = val;