Get Memory Address and Value
In the example from the earlier example, we used the pointer variable to get the memory address of a variable (used together with the & reference operator). However, you can also use the pointer to get the value of the variable, by using the * operator (the dereference operator):
Example
string food = "Pizza"; // Variable declaration
string* ptr = &food;
// Pointer declaration // Reference: Output the memory address of food with the pointer (0x6dfed4) cout << ptr << "\n"; // Dereference: Output the value of food with the pointer (Pizza) cout << *ptr << "\n";Note that the * sign can be confusing here, as it does two different things in our code:
- When used in declaration (string* ptr), it creates a pointer variable .
- When not used in declaration, it act as a dereference operator .