What is the point of pointers in C++ when I can just declare variables? When is it appropriate to use them?
Pointers store a memory address, so you would use them whenever you needed the memory address of something. This can be useful for things such as memory management, knowing where your data is stored. My professor told us this is a beautiful thing for advance programs in terms of ensuring your data are contiguously located in memory (like c-style strings are).
Hope this is some form of help for you!
-Zen, a newbie at c++