Pointer allows you to dereference a memory address. A reference is the physical memory address variable. If you have a variable and you want to pass-by-referen

Pointer allows you to dereference a memory address. A reference is the physical memory address variable. If you have a variable and you want to pass-by-reference, making any changes to the original variable effect the originally allocated value. You use a pointer for instance if you want to dereference a physical memory address as part of an array of allocated memory addresses. // reference example int value = 0; int value1 = &value; value1 = 2; // value should equal 2 // pointer example int value[5] = {1,2,3,4,5}; *value += 1;value++; *value += 1;value++; *value += 1;value++; *value += 1;value++; *value += 1; // should now be {2,3,4,5,6}