Question

What does the dereference operator do/how is it used? ('*')

Answer 1

The dereference operator, denoted by the (*) symbol, is used to access the value stored at the memory address pointed to by a pointer variable in programming languages like C and C++. It allows direct manipulation of the value rather than just the memory address.

Step-by-step explanation:

The dereference operator, denoted by the asterisk symbol (*), is used in programming languages such as C and C++. It is used to access the value stored at the memory address pointed to by a pointer variable. This allows the programmer to manipulate the value directly rather than just the memory address.

For example, consider the following code:

int num = 10; // declare an integer variable
int* ptr = # // declare a pointer variable and assign the memory address of 'num'
*num = 20; // dereference the pointer and assign a new value to 'num'

In this code snippet, the dereference operator is used to change the value of the variable 'num' indirectly through the pointer variable 'ptr'.