Next Previous Contents 11. Pointers are problems Pointers are not required for general purpose programming. Pointers make the programs messy and programs using pointers are very hard to read. Avoid using pointers as much as possible and use references.
Pointers are really a great pain.
It is possible to write an application without using pointers. You should pointers only in those cases where references will not work. From the moment on, the reference acts as an alternative name of the target, and anything you do to the reference is really done to the target. References MUST be initialized at the time of creation. Do use references for high efficiency and performance of program.