Summary

This chapter has been all about accessing values stored in other variables. References and pointers allow you to further break down program logic, allowing you to pass in values for a function or procedure to manipulate, while also allowing you to create relationships between entities within your code.

Going forward, most languages avoid the use of pointers due to the complexities of working with raw addresses. These languages do, however, provide references which are in effect pointers with some additional safeguards put around them. Knowledge of pointers will greatly help you work with references in other languages.