pointers and references
Pointers and references are concepts in programming languages that allow variables to indirectly access and manipulate data stored in memory. A pointer is a variable that holds the memory address of another variable. It points to the location in memory where the actual data resides. By dereferencing a pointer, we can access and modify the value stored at that memory address. Pointers are commonly used for dynamic memory allocation and accessing complex data structures. On the other hand, a reference is an alternative name or an alias for an already existing variable. It refers to the memory location of another variable and allows us to interact with that variable by its different name. Unlike pointers, references cannot be reassigned to point to different objects after initialization. References are frequently used for passing variables to functions or for providing multiple names to the same data.
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