References

A reference is an alias for an existing variable. It can be created using the & operator.

Once created, the reference can be used instead of the actual variable. Altering the value of the reference is equivalent to altering the referenced variable.

Note that we don’t have to worry about the * operator when de-referencing a variable reference. For example, lines 7, 11 and 14 in the following program.

Note that we are using std::cout every time we want to display something to the screen, instead of cout since we haven’t used the using namespace std statement. Similarly, we are using std::endl instead of endl. Both options work the same, but avoiding the using namespace statement has its advantages.