• ZILtoid1991@lemmy.worldOP
    71·
    3 months ago

    The & operator references the value.

    int i;
int* p = &i;

    In C++, the & at the function argument makes it a reference type (safe pointer).

    void someFunction(int& refVal) {
    [...]
}
    • Flames5123@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      32·
      3 months ago

      As someone who likes working with higher level languages, I never understood the pass by reference or even referencing different pointers. It never stuck out to me as useful in what I want software to do. It’s too close to hardware.

      • Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        10·
        3 months ago

        Most of the time you pass by reference for more outputs, or by const ref to avoid copying a big-ass data structure (which is not always straightforward, with structures smaller than a pointer, which are pretty big in 64 bits architecture, you lose more to the ref overhead than to the copy IIRC)

        • DahGangalang@infosec.pub
          4·
          3 months ago

          Another reason I commonly see: to change the structure / “main pointer” to a data structure (esp during freeing and cleanup).

      • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.worldOP
        1·
        3 months ago

        Reference values are quite useful, such as:

        double valOut;
if (parseDouble(valOut) == 0) { //Argument of parseDouble is ref type, no & needed for input, no exceptions needed for error handling
    [...] //No error, code executed normally
} else {
    [...] //Erroreus input
}