C++17 Quick Syntax Reference: A Pocket Guide to the Language, APIs and Library

© Mikael Olsson 2018

Mikael OlssonC++17 Quick Syntax Referencehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3600-0_6

6. References

Mikael Olsson¹ 

(1)

Hammarland, Finland

 

References allow programmers to create new names for a variable. They provide a simpler, safer, and less powerful alternative to pointers.

Creating References

A reference is declared in the same way as a regular variable, except that an ampersand is appended between the data type and the variable name. Furthermore, at the same time as the reference is declared, it must be initialized with a variable of the specified type.

int x = 5;

int& r = x; // r is an alias to x

int &s = x; // alternative syntax

Once the reference has been assigned, or seated, it can never be reseated to another variable. ...