http://coderwiki.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Pointer 2026-05-19T00:47:05Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.44.0 http://coderwiki.org/index.php?title=Pointer&diff=52&oldid=prev 2025-08-09T13:02:08Z

<p>new</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div>Pointers are not used too frequently in most [[High-level programming language|high-level programming languages]], but they are &#039;&#039;&#039;everywhere&#039;&#039;&#039; in [[Low-level programming language|lower-level programming]].<br /> <br /> The fundamental concept of both a pointer and a [[reference]] is to store a [[memory address]] to a [[variable]] or [[value]].<br /> <br /> == Why are they needed? ==<br /> The alternative to passing around pointers (known as [[pass by reference]]) is to pass the actual value to functions, known as [[pass by value]]. There are some issues with this:<br /> <br /> * You end up with multiple [[Copying a value|copies]] of the same value, so [[Mutate|mutating]] the original [[value]] is harder<br /> * If the [[programming language]] needs to make a [[Copying a value|copy]] of the [[value]], that requires [[memory allocation]] and is therefore [[Performance|slow]].<br /> <br /> == References ==<br /> The idea behind both &#039;&#039;&#039;pointers&#039;&#039;&#039; and [[Reference|references]] are very similar, but please see [[References]] for some subtle differences.<br /> <br /> == Pointers in common programming languages ==<br /> <br /> * [[C pointer]]</div>

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