C++: A Dialog Programming with the C++ Standard Library

Special Characters

& has a number of distinct meanings. When it precedes the name of a variable without following the name of a type, it means “the address of the following variable”. For example, &Str means “the address of the variable Str”. When & follows a type name and precedes a variable name, it means that the variable being declared is a reference — that is, another name for a preexisting variable. In this book, references are used only in argument lists, where they indicate that the variable being defined is a new name for the caller's variable rather than a new local variable.

% is the “modulus” operator, which returns the remainder after dividing its left-hand argument by its right-hand argument.

:: is the scope resolution operator ...