When to use references vs. pointers

Question

I understand the syntax and general semantics of pointers versus references, but how should I decide when it is more-or-less appropriate to use references or pointers in an

Answer 1

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A consequence of this is that in many implementations, operating on a variable with automatic or static lifetime through a reference, although syntactically similar to accessing it directly, can involve hidden dereference operations that are costly. References are a syntactically controversial feature of C++ because they obscure an identifier's level of indirection; that is, unlike C code where pointers usually stand out syntactically, in a large block of C++ code it may not be immediately obvious if the object being accessed is defined as a local or global variable or whether it is a reference (implicit pointer) to some other location, especially if the code mixes references and pointers. This aspect can make poorly written C++ code harder to read and debug (see Aliasing).

I agree 100% with this, and this is why I believe that you should only use a reference when you a have very good reason for doing so.