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❮ Increment Decrement Operators Overloading Cpp Friend Functions ❯

C++ References

A reference variable is an alias, meaning it is another name for an already existing variable. Once a reference is initialized with a variable, either the reference name or the variable name can be used to refer to the variable.

C++ References vs Pointers

References are often confused with pointers, but there are three main differences between them:

Creating References in C++

Think of a variable name as a label attached to the variable's location in memory. You can consider a reference as a second label attached to that memory location. Thus, you can access the contents of the variable through the original variable name or the reference. For example:

int i = 17;

We can declare reference variables for i as follows:

int& r = i;
double& s = d;

In these declarations, the & is read as reference. Therefore, the first declaration can be read as "r is an integer reference initialized to i," and the second declaration can be read as "s is a double reference initialized to d." The following example uses int and double references:

Example

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()
{
   // Declare simple variables
   int    i;
   double d;

   // Declare reference variables
   int&    r = i;
   double& s = d;

   i = 5;
   cout << "Value of i : " << i << endl;
   cout << "Value of i reference : " << r  << endl;

   d = 11.7;
   cout << "Value of d : " << d << endl;
   cout << "Value of d reference : " << s  << endl;

   return 0;
}

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

Value of i : 5
Value of i reference : 5
Value of d : 11.7
Value of d reference : 11.7

References are commonly used in function parameter lists and function return values. The following are two important concepts related to C++ references that C++ programmers must understand:

Concept Description
Passing Parameters by Reference C++ supports passing references as parameters to functions, which is safer than passing regular parameters.
Returning Values by Reference References can be returned from C++ functions, just like other data types.
❮ Increment Decrement Operators Overloading Cpp Friend Functions ❯