difference between pointer and reference in c?

Question

what is the difference between pointer , reference and dereference in c?

Answer 1

Pointer is an address of some data, e.g. int* a. Here a is really just the address where an int value is stored. A reference, in contrast, is another name for some variable, an alias, e.g. int a; int &b = a Here b is just another name for a: b++ has the same effect as a++.