1. Pointers and Classes

2. We’ll talk about today
Pointers
Arrays
Strings
Classes
“new” operator

3. Pointers Stores the memory address where the data is stored
int* numberPointer;
Can access the data that is pointed to with *
*numberPointer

4. Pointers and references
int number;
int* numberPointer = &number;
Two sides of the same data
numberPointer
Memory address pointed to
*numberPointer
The value pointed to by numberPointer
Dereference
number
The value of number
&number
The memory address where number is stored

5. Pointers are Memory Addresses

6. Arrays and Pointers Arrays are pointers to the first element
char* aString = char[5];
Equivalent
aString[3]
*(aString+3)
String
Implemented around a char*
string anotherString = “words”;
anotherString[2] == ‘r’;

7. Objects Same objective as Java Different syntax OO-programming
public/private sections
separate declarations and definitions
Operator overloading
We’ll see an example class in the code

8. Objects an Pointers “new” returns a pointer to the new object
OurClass* classPointer = new OurClass();
Don’t need to copy the entire object
Needed for efficiency when working with large data structures
Pass-by-pointer
By default in Java
C++ give you the option
If you use pointers
obj->function();