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I had been in an interview and asked to give an example or scenario in CPP where we can't proceed without pointers, means we have to use pointer necessarily.
I have given an example of function returning array whose size is not known then we need to return pointer that is name of the array which is actually a pointer. But the interviewer said its internal to array give some other example.
So please help me with some other scenarios for the same.
If you are using a C Library which has a function that returns a pointer, you have to use pointers then, not a reference.
There are many other cases (explicitly dealing with memory, for instance) - but these two came to my mind first:
linked data-structures
How: You need to reference parts of your structure in multiple places. You use pointers for that, because containers (which also use pointers internally) do not cover all your data-structure needs. For example,
class BinTree {
BinTree *left, *right;
public:
// ...
};
Why there is no alternative: there are no generic tree implementations in the standard (not counting the sorting ones).
pointer-to-implementation pattern (pimpl)
How: Your public .hpp file has the methods, but only refers to internal state via an opaque Whatever *; and your internal implementation actually knows what that means and can access its fields. See:
Is the pImpl idiom really used in practice?
Why there is no alternative: if you provide your implementation in binary-only form, users of the header cannot access internals without decompiling/reverse engineering. It is a much stronger form of privacy.
Anyplace you would want to use a reference, but have to allow for null values
This is common in libraries where if you pass a non zero pointer, it will be set to the value
It is also a convention to have arguments to a function that will be changed to use a pointer, rather than a reference to emphasize that the value can be changed to the user.
Here are some cases:
Objects with large lifetime. You created some object in function. You need this object afterwards (not even copy of it).
But if you created it without pointers, on stack - after function would finish, this object would die. So you need to create this object using dynamic memory and return pointer to it.
Stack space is not enough. You need object which needs lot of memory, hence allocating it on the stack won't fit your needs, since stack has less space than heap usually. So you need to create the object again using dynamic memory on heap and return pointer to it.
You need reference semantics. You have structure which you passed to some function and you want the function to modify this structure, in this case you need to pass a pointer to this structure, otherwise you can't modify the original structure, since copy of it will be passed to the function if you don't use pointers.
Note: in the latter case, indeed using pointer is not necessary, since you can substitute it using reference.
PS. You can browse here for more scenarios, and decide in which cases are pointer usages necessary.
pointers are important for performance example of this are for functions. originally when you pass a value in a function it copies the value from the argument and stores to the parameter
but in pointers you can indirectly access them and do what you want
I have noticed that most C++ experts always advice it's better to pass by value, due to RVO. This allows me not worry too much about pointer manipulation and is easier to write code as well. No complaints there. This makes me wonder whether it is the correct approach to not use dynamic memory allocation (on the heap) at all and always pass parameters and return results by value?
This means instead of coming up with signatures like this:
Character* getCharacter(Sprite *sprite, Action* action)
I should more or less stick to signatures like:
Character getCharacter(Sprite sprite, Action action)
Is my understanding correct? or did I juth think i thaw a putthy cath?
They each have there pro's and con's. remember that using words like "always" is an absolute. Only the Dark Side deals in absolutes.
So let's look at each way and when we would use them.
Pass by value is good when the object being passed is smaller (since a local copy gets made). It is also good if you want to be sure to not accidentally change the original data. Its shortcoming is it makes a local copy and that can be bad if it is really big.
Pass by reference only passes a memory address. Therefore, large objects can be passed for a relatively low footprint. Also, with a reference, you can modify the original (this is both good and bad). This enables you to "return" more than one variable (so to speak). So obviously, the big con here is that you can mistakenly change the original data.
Constant pass by reference is generally accepted to be a very strong candidate for doing things. It has the pros of both pass by reference and value. Low footprint since it is a reference AND you can't change the original. There aren't many cons accept for the fact that your use of the variable in the method needs to change a little. Remember, its a const and therefore cannot be modified in the function.
Remember, there is no magic-bullet. Nothing is always better. Determine what you need and select the right tool for the job.
EDIT: also, has been said. Passing is not the same as dynamic allocation. dynamic allocation only happens with the "new" keyword. My suggestion would be to avoid the "new" keyword for now until you have a better understanding of arguments and pointers.
Whether or not you allocate an object on the heap typically is driven by one of the following concerns:
If the new object needs to outlive the function that creates it, the object must be allocated on the heap.
If the object is very large, and does not fit on the stack, then you must allocate it on the heap.
Beyond that, the choice of pass by value or pass by reference is determined by the semantics. If you want to operate on a copy, pass by value. If you want to operate on the actual object, pass by reference.
Your statement is simply utterly untrue. There is some light advice to pass by value instead of the mainstream const-ref in the special case where the function will copy the argument to a local variable anyway.
And for passing by-nonconst-pointer, pass by value was never an alternative. The first implies an optional out or inout param and the second and input param.
And mentioned dynamic allocation in question title just fits no way with the content.
Your understanding in definitely not correct.
In attempting to answer another question, I was intrigued by a bout of curiousity, and wanted to find out if an idea was possible.
Is it possible to dynamically dereference either a void * pointer (we assume it points to a valid referenced dynamically allocated copy) or some other type during run time to return the correct type?
Is there some way to store a supplied type (as in, the class knows the void * points to an int), if so how?
Can said stored type (if possible) be used to dynamically dereference?
Can a type be passed on it's own as an argument to a function?
Generally the concept (no code available) is a doubly-linked list of void * pointers (or similar) that can dynamically allocated space, which also keep with them a copy of what type they hold for later dereference.
1) Dynamic references:
No. Instead of having your variables hold just pointers, have them hold a struct containing both the actual pointer and a tag defining what type the pointer is pointing to
struct Ref{
int tag;
void *ref;
};
and then, when "dereferencing", first check the tag to find out what you want to do.
2) Storing types in your variables, passing them to functions.
This doesn't really make sense, as types aren't values that can be stored around. Perhaps what you just want is to pass around a class / constructor function and that is certainly feasible.
In the end, C and C++ are bare-bones languages. While a variable assignment in a dynamic language looks a lot like a variable assignment in C (they are just a = after all) in reality the dynamic language is doing a lot of extra stuff behind the scenes (something it is allowed to do, since a new language is free to define its semantics)
Sorry, this is not really possible in C++ due to lack of type reflection and lack of dynamic binding. Dynamic dereferencing is especially impossible due to these.
You could try to emulate its behavior by storing types as enums or std::type_info* pointers, but these are far from practical. They require registration of types, and huge switch..case or if..else statements every time you want to do something with them. A common container class and several wrapper classes might help achieving them (I'm sure this is some design pattern, any idea of its name?)
You could also use inheritance to solve your problem if it fits.
Or perhaps you need to reconsider your current design. What exactly do you need this for?
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Possible Duplicate:
Common Uses For Pointers?
I am still learning the basics of C++ but I already know enough to do useful little programs.
I understand the concept of pointers and the examples I see in tutorials make sense to me. However, on the practical level, and being a (former) PHP developer, I am not yet confident to actually use them in my programs.
In fact, so far I have not felt the need to use any pointer. I have my classes and functions and I seem to be doing perfectly fine without using any pointer (let alone pointers to pointers). And I can't help feeling a bit proud of my little programs.
Still, I am aware that I am missing on one of C++'s most important feature, a double edged one: pointers and memory management can create havoc, seemingly random crashes, hard to find bugs and security holes... but at the same time, properly used, they must allow for clever and efficient programming.
So: do tell me what I am missing by not using pointers.
What are good scenarios where using pointers is a must?
What do they allow you to do that you couldn't do otherwise?
In which way to they make your programs more efficient?
And what about pointers to pointers???
[Edit: All the various answers are useful. One problem at SO is that we cannot "accept" more than one answer. I often wish I could. Actually, it's all the answers combined that help to understand better the whole picture. Thanks.]
I use pointers when I want to give a class access to an object, without giving it ownership of that object. Even then, I can use a reference, unless I need to be able to change which object I am accessing and/or I need the option of no object, in which case the pointer would be NULL.
This question has been asked on SO before. My answer from there:
I use pointers about once every six lines in the C++ code that I write. Off the top of my head, these are the most common uses:
When I need to dynamically create an object whose lifetime exceeds the scope in which it was created.
When I need to allocate an object whose size is unknown at compile time.
When I need to transfer ownership of an object from one thing to another without actually copying it (like in a linked list/heap/whatever of really big, expensive structs)
When I need to refer to the same object from two different places.
When I need to slice an array without copying it.
When I need to use compiler intrinsics to generate CPU-specific instructions, or work around situations where the compiler emits suboptimal or naive code.
When I need to write directly to a specific region of memory (because it has memory-mapped IO).
Pointers are commonly used in C++. Becoming comfortable with them, will help you understand a broader range of code. That said if you can avoid them that is great, however, in time as your programs become more complex, you will likely need them even if only to interface with other libraries.
Primarily pointers are used to refer to dynamically allocated memory (returned by new).
They allow functions to take arguments that cannot be copied onto the stack either because they are too big or cannot be copied, such as an object returned by a system call. (I think also stack alignment, can be an issue, but too hazy to be confident.)
In embedded programing they are used to refer to things like hardware registers, which require that the code write to a very specific address in memory.
Pointers are also used to access objects through their base class interfaces. That is if I have a class B that is derived from class A class B : public A {}. That is an instance of the object B could be accessed as if it where class A by providing its address to a pointer to class A, ie: A *a = &b_obj;
It is a C idiom to use pointers as iterators on arrays. This may still be common in older C++ code, but is probably considered a poor cousin to the STL iterator objects.
If you need to interface with C code, you will invariable need to handle pointers which are used to refer to dynamically allocated objects, as there are no references. C strings are just pointers to an array of characters terminated by the nul '\0' character.
Once you feel comfortable with pointers, pointers to pointers won't seem so awful. The most obvious example is the argument list to main(). This is typically declared as char *argv[], but I have seen it declared (legally I believe) as char **argv.
The declaration is C style, but it says that I have array of pointers to pointers to char. Which is interpreted as a arbitrary sized array (the size is carried by argc) of C style strings (character arrays terminated by the nul '\0' character).
If you haven't felt a need for pointers, I wouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about them until a need arises.
That said, one of the primary ways pointers can contribute to more efficient programming is by avoiding copies of actual data. For example, let's assume you were writing a network stack. You receive an Ethernet packet to be processed. You successively pass that data up the stack from the "raw" Ethernet driver to the IP driver to the TCP driver to, say, the HTTP driver to something that processes the HTML it contains.
If you're making a new copy of the contents for each of those, you end up making at least four copies of the data before you actually get around to rendering it at all.
Using pointers can avoid a lot of that -- instead of copying the data itself, you just pass around a pointer to the data. Each successive layer of the network stack looks at its own header, and passes a pointer to what it considers the "payload" up to the next higher layer in the stack. That next layer looks at its own header, modifies the pointer to show what it considers the payload, and passes it on up the stack. Instead of four copies of the data, all four layers work with one copy of the real data.
A big use for pointers is dynamic sizing of arrays. When you don't know the size of the array at compile time, you will need to allocate it at run-time.
int *array = new int[dynamicSize];
If your solution to this problem is to use std::vector from the STL, they use dynamic memory allocation behind the scenes.
There are several scenarios where pointers are required:
If you are using Abstract Base Classes with virtual methods. You can hold a std::vector and loop through all these objects and call a virtual method. This REQUIRES pointers.
You can pass a pointer to a buffer to a method reading from a file etc.
You need a lot of memory allocated on the heap.
It's a good thing to care about memory problems right from the start. So if you start using pointers, you might as well take a look at smart pointers, like boost's shared_ptr for example.
What are good scenarios where using pointers is a must?
Interviews. Implement strcpy.
What do they allow you to do that you couldn't do otherwise?
Use of inheritance hierarchy. Data structures like Binary trees.
In which way to they make your programs more efficient?
They give more control to the programmer, for creating and deleting resources at run time.
And what about pointers to pointers???
A frequently asked interview question. How will you create two dimensional array on heap.
A pointer has a special value, NULL, that reference's won't. I use pointers wherever NULL is a valid and useful value.
I just want to say that i rarely use pointers. I use references and stl objects (deque, list, map, etc).
A good idea is when you need to return an object where the calling function should free or when you dont want to return by value.
List<char*>* fileToList(char*filename) { //dont want to pass list by value
ClassName* DataToMyClass(DbConnectionOrSomeType& data) {
//alternatively you can do the below which doesnt require pointers
void DataToMyClass(DbConnectionOrSomeType& data, ClassName& myClass) {
Thats pretty much the only situation i use but i am not thinking that hard. Also if i want a function to modify a variable and cant use the return value (say i need more then one)
bool SetToFiveIfPositive(int**v) {
You can use them for linked lists, trees, etc.
They're very important data structures.
In general, pointers are useful as they can hold the address of a chunk of memory. They are especially useful in some low level drivers where they are efficiently used to operate on a piece of memory byte by byte. They are most powerful invention that C++ inherits from C.
As to pointer to pointer, here is a "hello-world" example showing you how to use it.
#include <iostream>
void main()
{
int i = 1;
int j = 2;
int *pInt = &i; // "pInt" points to "i"
std::cout<<*pInt<<std::endl; // prints: 1
*pInt = 6; // modify i, i = 6
std::cout<<i<<std::endl; // prints: 6
int **ppInt = &pInt; // "ppInt" points to "pInt"
std::cout<<**ppInt<<std::endl; // prints: 6
**ppInt = 8; // modify i, i = 8
std::cout<<i<<std::endl; // prints: 8
*ppInt = &j; // now pInt points to j
*pInt = 10; // modify j, j = 10
std::cout<<j<<std::endl; // prints: 10
}
As we see, "pInt" is a pointer to integer which points to "i" at the beginning. With it, you can modify "i". "ppInt" is a pointer to pointer which points to "pInt". With it, you can modify "pInt" which happens to be an address. As a result, "*ppInt = &j" makes "pInt" points to "j" now. So we have all the results above.
I'm currently doing my first real project in C++ and so, fairly new to pointers. I know what they are and have read some basic usage rules. Probably not enough since I still do not really understand when to use them, and when not.
The problem is that most places just mention that most people either overuse them or underuse them. My question is, when to use them, and when not?.
Currently, in many cases i'm asking myself, should I use a pointer here or just pass the variable itself to the function.
For instance, I know that you can send a pointer to a function so the function can actually alter the variable itself instead of a copy of it. But when you just need to get some information of the object once (for instance the method needs a getValue() something), are pointers usefull in that case?
I would love to see either reactions but also links that might be helpfull. Since it is my first time using C++ I do not yet have a good C++ book (was thinking about buying one if I keep on using c++ which I probably will).
For the do's and dont's of C++:
Effective C++ and More Effective C++ by Scott Meyers.
For pointers (and references):
use pass by value if the type fits into 4 Bytes and don't want to have it changed after the return of the call.
use pass by reference to const if the type is larger and you don't want to have it changed after the return of the call.
use pass by reference if the parameter can't be NULL
use a pointer otherwise.
dont't use raw pointers if you don't need to. Most of the time, a smart pointer (see Boost) is the better option.
From the c++ faq:
Use references when you can, and
pointers when you have to.
https://isocpp.org/wiki/faq/references#refs-vs-ptrs
1) I tend to use member variables scoped with the class. They are constructed in the initializer of the class, and I don't need to worry about pointers.
2) You can pass by reference to a function, and not worry about passing pointers. This effectively will pass a pointer to the method / function that can be used as if you passed the class, but without the overhead of copying the class itself.
3) If I need to control the lifetime of an object that is independent of my main application architecture's classes... then I will use an auto_ptr from the STL to automatically handle the pointer's destruction when no one longer references it. Check it out - it's the way to go.
Use it whenever you are dealing with allocated memory or passing arguments by reference to a method; I don't think there is a rule for not using pointers.
My rules of thumb:
Always pass function parameters as const references,
unless they are built-in types, in which case they are copied (and const/non-const becomes a question of style as the caller isn't affected) or
unless they are meant to be changed inside the function so that the changes reflect at the caller's, in which case they are passed by non-const reference or
unless the function should be callable even if callers don't have an object to pass, then they are passed as pointers, so that callers can pass in NULL pointers instead (apply #1 and #3 to decide whether to pass per const T* or per T*)
Streams must always be passed around as non-const references.
Generally, when you can use references instead of pointers it is a good idea. A reference must have a target (no NULL pointer violations), they allow the same semantics as pointers when being passed as arguments to a function, and they are generally nicer to use for beginners (or those not coming from a C background).
Pointers are required when you want to do dynamic allocation of memory; when you need to deal with an unknown amount of things that will be later specified. In this case the interface to access memory is through new and delete which deal in pointers.
My philosophy is to always pass by value, unless you need to modify the variable passed or copying the object is expensive. In both these cases, consider using a reference instead of a pointer first: if you don't need to change which object you're referencing, nor do you need a possible extremal value (NULL pointer), you can use a reference.
Don't forget about iterators either.
All good answers above. Additionally, if you are performing some processor-intensive work, it's important to realize that dereferencing a pointer will likely be a cache miss on your processor. It's a good idea to keep your data accessible with minimal pointer dereferences.
Class attribute: pointer
Variables declared in methods: no pointers, so we avoid memory leaks.
In this way, prevent memory leaks and controlle attribute's consistency.
Salu2.