Reference declaration in C++ - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Reference Declaration in C++

📖 Scenario: Imagine you have a number stored in a box. You want to create another name for the same box so you can use either name to change or see the number inside.

🎯 Goal: You will create a reference to an integer variable and then change the value using the reference. Finally, you will print the value to see the effect.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an integer variable named original with the value 10.

Create a reference variable named ref that refers to original.

Change the value of original using the reference ref to 20.

Print the value of original.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

References are used in C++ to avoid copying large data and to allow functions to modify variables directly.

💼 Career

Understanding references is important for writing efficient and clear C++ code in software development jobs.

1

Create an integer variable

Create an integer variable called original and set it to 10.

C++

// Create an integer variable called original and set it to 10
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use int to declare a number and assign 10 to original.

2

Create a reference to the integer

Create a reference variable called ref that refers to the variable original.

C++

int original = 10;
// Create a reference variable called ref that refers to original
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use int& to declare a reference to original.

3

Change the value using the reference

Change the value of original to 20 using the reference variable ref.

C++

int original = 10;
int& ref = original;
// Change the value of original to 20 using ref
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign 20 to ref to change original.

4

Print the value of the original variable

Write a std::cout statement to print the value of original.

C++

int original = 10;
int& ref = original;
ref = 20;
// Print the value of original
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use std::cout << original << std::endl; to print the value.