Passing Reference to a Pointer in C++ - Coding

Prerequisite: Pointers vs References in C++.

For clear understanding, let’s compare the usage of a “pointer to pointer” VS “Reference to pointer” in some cases.

Note: It is allowed to use “pointer to pointer” in both C and C++, but we can use “Reference to pointer” only in C++.

Passing pointer to a function

If a pointer is passed to a function as a parameter and tried to be modified then the changes made to the pointer does not reflects back outside that function. This is because only a copy of the pointer is passed to the function. It can be said that “pass by pointer” is passing a pointer by value. In most cases, this does not present a problem. But the problem comes when you modify the pointer inside the function. Instead of modifying the variable, you are only modifying a copy of the pointer and the original pointer remains unmodified.

Below program illustrate this:

CPP

#include <iostream> 
  
using namespace std; 
  
int global_Var = 42; 
  
// function to change pointer value 
void changePointerValue(int* pp) 
{ 
    pp = &global_Var; 
} 
  
int main() 
{ 
    int var = 23; 
    int* ptr_to_var = &var; 
  
    cout << "Passing Pointer to function:" << endl; 
  
    cout << "Before :" << *ptr_to_var << endl; // display 23 
  
    changePointerValue(ptr_to_var); 
  
    cout << "After :" << *ptr_to_var << endl; // display 23 
  
    return 0; 
} 

Output:

Passing Pointer to function:
Before :23
After :23

Passing “pointer to a pointer” as a parameter to function

The above problem can be resolved by passing the address of the pointer to the function instead of a copy of the actual function. For this, the function parameter should accept a “pointer to pointer” as shown in the below program:

CPP

#include <iostream> 
  
using namespace std; 
  
int global_var = 42; 
  
// function to change pointer to pointer value 
void changePointerValue(int** ptr_ptr) 
{ 
    *ptr_ptr = &global_var; 
} 
  
int main() 
{ 
    int var = 23; 
    int* pointer_to_var = &var; 
  
    cout << "Passing a pointer to a pointer to function " << endl; 
  
    cout << "Before :" << *pointer_to_var << endl; // display 23 
  
    changePointerValue(&pointer_to_var); 
  
    cout << "After :" << *pointer_to_var << endl; // display 42 
  
    return 0; 
} 

Output:

Passing a pointer to a pointer to function 
Before :23
After :42

How to call a function with “Reference to pointer” parameter?

A reference allows called function to modify a local variable of the caller function. For example, consider the following example program where fun() is able to modify local variable x of main().

CPP

#include<iostream> 
  
using namespace std; 
  
void fun(int &x) {  
    x = 20;  
}  
    
int main() {  
    int x = 10;  
    fun(x);  
    cout<<"New value of x is "<<x;  
    return 0;  
} 

Output:

New value of x is 20

Below program shows how to pass a “Reference to a pointer” to a function:

CPP

#include <iostream> 
  
using namespace std; 
  
int gobal_var = 42; 
  
// function to change Reference to pointer value 
void changeReferenceValue(int*& pp) 
{ 
    pp = &gobal_var; 
} 
  
int main() 
{ 
    int var = 23; 
    int* ptr_to_var = &var; 
  
    cout << "Passing a Reference to a pointer to function" << endl; 
  
    cout << "Before :" << *ptr_to_var << endl; // display 23 
  
    changeReferenceValue(ptr_to_var); 
  
    cout << "After :" << *ptr_to_var << endl; // display 42 
  
    return 0; 
} 

Output:

Passing a Reference to a pointer to function
Before :23
After :42

Returning a pointer from a function

CPP

#include <iostream> 
  
using namespace std; 
  
int global_var = 42; 
  
// function to return a pointer 
int* returnPointerValue() 
{ 
    return &global_var; 
} 
  
int main() 
{ 
    int var = 23; 
    int* ptr_to_var = &var; 
  
    cout << "Return a pointer from a function " << endl; 
  
    cout << "Before :" << *ptr_to_var << endl; // display 23 
  
    ptr_to_var = returnPointerValue(); 
  
    cout << "After :" << *ptr_to_var << endl; // display 42 
  
    return 0; 
} 

Output:

Return a pointer from a function 
Before :23
After :42

Returning reference from function

CPP

#include <iostream> 
  
using namespace std; 
  
int global_var = 42; 
  
// function to return reference value 
int& ReturnReference() 
{ 
    return global_var; 
} 
  
int main() 
{ 
    int var = 23; 
    int* ptr_to_var = &var; 
  
    cout << "Returning a Reference " << endl; 
  
    cout << "Before :" << *ptr_to_var << endl; // display 23 
  
    ptr_to_var = &ReturnReference(); 
  
    cout << "After :" << *ptr_to_var << endl; // display 42 
  
    return 0; 
} 

Output:

Returning a Reference 
Before :23
After :42

Reffered: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org

C++

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