Differences between pointers and references

Pointers

Consider a pointer to be a compass that directs you to a particular spot. The memory address of another variable is kept in a pointer variable. This address tells you where to find the actual data, much like a compass direction. The dereference operator (*), which functions as a compass to guide you to the destination, is used to access the data....

References

Think about a reference as a different name for an already-existing variable, similar to an alias. Basically, you’re creating a second way to access the same memory when you create a reference. References need to be initialized at declaration with a valid variable, unlike pointers, which are not nullable....

Differences between pointers and references:

Feature Pointer Reference Definition Stores the memory address of another variable Creates an alias for an existing variable Initialization Can be declared without initialization Must be initialized with a valid variable at declaration Null Value Can be assigned NULL Cannot be assigned NULL Reassignment Can be reassigned to point to different variables Cannot be reassigned to another variable Memory Allocation Does not allocate memory itself Does not allocate memory itself Memory Location Has its own memory address and size Shares the memory address of the original variable Access Accessed through dereferencing (*) Accessed directly (no dereferencing required) Safety More error-prone (dangling pointers, memory leaks) Generally safer (prevents null pointer exceptions) Use Cases Dynamic memory allocation, complex data structures Function arguments (pass by reference), improve readability...