{"id":1883,"date":"2018-12-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kindsonthegenius.com\/blog\/basics-of-pointers-in-c-a-simple-tutorial\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T03:22:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T01:22:01","slug":"basics-of-pointers-in-c-a-simple-tutorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kindsonthegenius.com\/blog\/basics-of-pointers-in-c-a-simple-tutorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Basics of Pointers in C++ (A Simple Tutorial)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pointers in C++ is one of the core concepts that you need to learn. This is because it is a feature that helps you understand how your program code interacts with memory. So let’s get started.<\/p>\n

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  1. What are Pointer?<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Declaring and Assigning a Pointer<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Accessing Value in a Pointer (Dereferencing)<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. The Complete Program<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Watch the Video Tutorial<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    1. What are Pointer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    A pointer is simply the address of a variable in memory. Let’s clarify this. When you assign a variable in C++, what you are doing is creating a location in memory and placing a value in there. For example, if you say
    \n<\/p>\n

    \n
      int<\/span> num =<\/span> 45<\/span>;\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
     <\/p>\n
    The number 45 is stored in a memory location which out program labels num. However the computer keeps the address of this memory location. So a pointer simply keeps the address of memory locations. To view this address, we would use the ampersand (&) symbol with the name of the variable.\u00a0 The code below displays the address of num<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    \n
      int<\/span> num =<\/span> 45<\/span>;\n  cout<<&<\/span>num;\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
     <\/p>\n
    The above code would display:\u00a00x61ff1c<\/p>\n
     <\/p>\n
    2. Declaring and Assigning a Pointer<\/strong><\/p>\n
    Now assuming we want to store this address in some variable. We cannot store it on just normal variables. We can only store it in pointer variables. A pointer variable (or just pointer) is used to hold addresses of other variable. Before you can use a pointer variable, you must declare it like this:<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    \n
    int<\/span> *<\/span>np;\t\t\/\/Declare a pointer<\/span>\nnp =<\/span> &<\/span>num;\t\t\/\/Assign a value to the pointer<\/span>\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
     <\/p>\n
    This code\u00a0 would declares a pointer np. Simply by adding an asterisk (*) to the variable, we are declaring it as a pointer. So when we want to use it we could just use it without the\u00a0 *.<\/p>\n
     <\/p>\n
    3. Accessing the Value in a Pointer<\/strong><\/p>\n
    Just as we mentioned before, a pointer is an address. So if we have a pointer, we could access the value stored in this address. To do this, we use the dereferencing operator(which is also an asterisk) with the name of the pointer.<\/p>\n
    The code below would give us the actual value stored in the pointer.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    \n
     cout<<*<\/span>np;\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
     <\/p>\n
    The Complete Program<\/strong><\/p>\n
    I have made a complete program with a line by line explanation of how to work with pointers in C++. Feel free to copy this program and run it to make sure you are clear with how pointers work.\u00a0 In\u00a0 a different lesson, we would examine pointers to pointers.<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    \n
    \/\/============================================================================<\/span>\n\/\/ Name        : Pointers Tutorial in C++<\/span>\n\/\/ Author      : Kindson The Tech Pro<\/span>\n\/\/ Copyright   : Your copyright notice<\/span>\n\/\/ Date \t   : 28th December, 2018<\/span>\n\/\/============================================================================<\/span>\n\n#include <stdio.h><\/span>\n#include <stdlib.h><\/span>\n#include <iostream><\/span>\n\nusing<\/span> namespace<\/span> std;\n\nint<\/span> main<\/span>(void<\/span>) {\n\n\tint<\/span> num =<\/span> 45<\/span>;\t\/\/Declare an int variable num and assing a value of 45<\/span>\n\tint<\/span> *<\/span>np;\t\t\/\/Declare a pointer(address of an int variable)<\/span>\n\tnp =<\/span> &<\/span>num;\t\t\/\/Assign an address to the pointer<\/span>\n\tcout<<<\/span>np<<<\/span>endl;\t\/\/Display the pointer(address)<\/span>\n\tcout<<*<\/span>np;\t\t\/\/Display the value in the address(dereferencing)<\/span>\n\n\treturn<\/span> 0<\/span>;\n}\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
    If you run this program correctly, then your output would be as shown below.<\/p>\n
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     Watch the Video<\/b>
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