CO2402 Advanced Programming with C++ Lecture 20 Notes
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Course
Advanced Programming with C++ (CO2402)
Institution
University Of Central Lancashire Preston (UClan)
This document contains detailed notes from Lecture 20 of the CO2402 course on Advanced Programming with C++. The lecture explores the concepts of references and pointers, two fundamental features in C++ that provide flexible memory management and efficient function parameter passing. The notes expl...
o C++ supports both references and pointers, allowing for
flexible memory management and function parameter
passing.
o Reference: An alias for another variable, which cannot be
null, must be initialized, and cannot be reassigned.
o Pointer: Stores the address of a variable, which can point to
different objects or be null during its lifetime.
2. Advantages of References
o Safer than pointers as they must always refer to a valid
object.
o No need for dereferencing operators to access the value,
making the code cleaner.
Example:
, 3. When to Use Pointers
o Pointers are necessary when dealing with dynamic memory
allocation, arrays, and situations where the object being
pointed to may change during runtime.
Example:
Polymorphism with References (from C++11)
1. Polymorphism with Virtual Functions
o Polymorphism allows calling the correct function version based
on the object's type at runtime, even when accessed through
a base class reference.
Example:
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