Why should I use reference variables at all? [closed]

Answer 1

References make call-by-reference easier, since the caller does not have to use the & operator when passinng an object.

Like this:

MyObject ob;

void foo_ref(MyObject& o){ ...}
void foo_ptr(Myobject* o){ ...}

//call

foo_ref(ob);
foo_ptr(&ob);

Furthermore, they enable initializing pointers in a function:

MyObject* ob = nullptr;
MySubject* sub = nullptr;

void foo_init(MyObject *& o, MySubject *& s) {

   o = new MyObject;
   s = new MySubject;
}

//call

foo_init(ob, sub);

Without the reference to pointer this example would only work with a pointers to pointers, making the code look terrible, as you would have to derefernce each argument first

MyObject* ob = nullptr;
MySubject* sub = nullptr;

void foo_init(MyObject ** o, MySubject ** s) {

   *o = new MyObject;
   *s = new MySubject;
}

//call

foo_init(&ob, &sub);