425: Highlights

• An ordinary variable refers to the location of an object. A pointer variable refers to the address of the location of an object.
• Pointers generally take far less memory than do class objects.
• If you want to define a pointer variable, then instantiate the following pattern:

  data type *pointer name 
  

• If you want to allocate a chunk of memory at run time, and you want to assign the address of that chunk of memory to a pointer variable, then instantiate the following pattern:

  pointer name = new data type; 
  

• If you want to access a member variable in a class object, and you have a pointer to that class object, then instantiate one of the following patterns:

  (*pointer name).member variable name     // OK 
  pointer name -> member variable name     // Better 
  

• If you want to write a value into the memory reserved for a member variable in a class object, and you have a pointer to that class object, then instantiate one of the following patterns:

  // OK: 
  (*pointer name).member variable name = expression 
  // Better: 
  pointer name -> member variable name = expression