Question: Resolving Pointers in C++ Given the image above, fill in the code belo

Question

Question: Resolving Pointers in C++

Given the image above, fill in the code below with the correct symbols.

int_   a = ________;
int_   b = __ a;

int * OR & a =                           [ Select ] 3 OR new int(3) ;

int                            [ Select ]                     * OR &           b = * OR &   a;

Explain why your answer is correct. I am not sure which choice would be correct. If * is required or & is selected, please explain why those are the correct symbols. For example, int* a would be correct if a is a pointer to an integer, and so on.   

Explanation / Answer

Pointers are easy topic if understood correctly, let's uderstand the situation here. We have two variable a and b and both hold 3. Now, the correct answer to your problem would be this:

int *a= new int(3);
int &b = *a;

How ? Let us break it, the first statement int* a actually creates a pointer a to point an integer value. If you go on to write 3 directly that would be an illegal conversion because 3 is an int value and on the left side you have int * i.e. pointer. So, we created a new integer 3 and pointed that pointer the value 3.

Now, b is an reference variable here it points to the direction of *a i.e. value at pointer a. If you had written here &a that would have been a double pointer conversion to int on the left side which is again invalid. A reference has to be initialized when created and that to an integer value, as value at a is an integer we can initialize it to that.

You can also print a and b by the following command:

   cout << *(&b) <<" "; //value at direction of b
   cout << *a; //value at a

I hope you understood it, if you have any further doubts let me know !

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