Pointer and variable relationship in C++ - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Pointer and Variable Relationship

📖 Scenario: Imagine you have a box with a label showing its address. You want to learn how to use a pointer to find out where the box is and what is inside it.

🎯 Goal: You will create a variable and a pointer that points to it. Then you will print the variable's value, the pointer's value (the address), and the value the pointer points to.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an integer variable named number with the value 42.

Create an integer pointer named ptr that points to number.

Print the value of number.

Print the value of ptr (the address of number).

Print the value pointed to by ptr.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Pointers are used in programming to directly access and modify memory, which is important for efficient programs and working with hardware.

💼 Career

Understanding pointers is essential for jobs in systems programming, embedded systems, game development, and performance-critical applications.

1

Create an integer variable

Create an integer variable called number and set it to 42.

C++

# Create an integer variable called number and set it to 42
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use int number = 42; to create the variable.

2

Create a pointer to the variable

Create an integer pointer called ptr that points to the variable number.

C++

int number = 42;
// Create an integer pointer called ptr that points to number
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use int* ptr = &number; to create the pointer.

3

Print the variable and pointer values

Use std::cout to print the value of number, the value of ptr (the address), and the value pointed to by ptr. Use separate std::cout lines for each.

C++

int number = 42;
int* ptr = &number;
// Print number, ptr, and *ptr using std::cout
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use std::cout << number << std::endl; to print the variable value, and similarly for the pointer and the value it points to.

4

Run and observe the output

Run the program and observe the output. It should print the value 42 twice and the memory address once (the address will look like a hexadecimal number).

C++

#include 

int main() {
    int number = 42;
    int* ptr = &number;
    std::cout << number << std::endl;
    std::cout << ptr << std::endl;
    std::cout << *ptr << std::endl;
    return 0;
}
// Run the program to see the output

Need a hint?

The first and last lines printed should be 42. The middle line is the address and will vary.