In C++, a reference variable is an alias for something else, that is, another name for an already existing variable.
So suppose we make Sonny a reference to someone named Songqiao. You can refer to the person as either Sonny or Songqiao.
Let’s take a look at how we can do this with code. Suppose we have an int
variable already called songqiao
, we can create an alias to it by using the &
sign in the declaration:
int &sonny = songqiao;
So here, we made sonny
a reference to songqiao
.
Now when we make changes to sonny
(add 1, subtract 2, etc), songqiao
also changes.
Two things to note about references:
- Anything we do to the reference also happens to the original.
- Aliases cannot be changed to alias something else.
Instructions
We have a variable called soda
declared and initialized to 99
.
Declare another int
variable called pop
and make it a reference to soda
.
Let’s add 1 to pop
.
Print out soda
and pop
.
Are they the same?