Question about C++ references?

**Gtoo** · 01-17-2010, 06:49 AM

I understand what references are. They refer to a variable which you can change using a reference,but can you change a variable in a function without using a reference? The book i have doesn't go into much depth about it.

**sandun dhammika** · 03-28-2010, 04:38 AM

please don't confuse the references and pointers.
Pointers and references are two distinct.

for a example the bellow code demonstrates swap function
with using pointers and references.

Code:

void swap(int&a , int& b)
{
     int temp ;
     temp = a;
     a = b;
     b = temp ;
}

void swap(int *a , int *b)
{
    int temp;
    temp = *a ;
    *a = *b;
    *b = temp ;
}

So using pointers you can change do the same thing.But using pointers is little bit
dirty.