It's not always obvious. Quite commonly one is used when the other would be better, even by otherwise good coders. To beat the subject completely to death: P

It's not always obvious. Quite commonly one is used when the other would be better, even by otherwise good coders. To beat the subject completely to death: Pointers, References and Values Passing Parameters, Returning Results, and Storing Member Variables with Musings on Good C++ Style http://www.warplife.com/tips/code/c++/memory-management/parameters/ http://www.warplife.com/tips/code/c++/memory-management/para...