Address-of operator (&) vs reference operator(&)

Question

I am kind confused about this case:

Declare a pointer:

int b =10;
int*a=&b;

Here & takes the address of b.

Consider another example:

/* Reference to the calling object can be returned */

Test& Test::func ()
{
   // Some processing
   return *this;
} 

this should be a pointer, *this is the obeject pointed. But here we are asking to assign *this to &Test.

What should we modify the code to let the function return the address. Should we still use Test& ?

Answer 1

In C++ there're two different syntax units:

&variable; // extracts address of variable

and

Type& ref = variable; // creates reference called ref to variable

Easy usage example:

int v = 5;

cout << v << endl; // prints 5
cout << &v << endl; // prints address of v

int* p;
p = &v; // stores address of v into p (p is a pointer to int)

int& r = v;

cout << r << endl; // prints 5

r = 6;

cout << r << endl; // prints 6
cout << v << endl; // prints 6 too because r is a reference to v

As for using references in functions, you should google "passing by reference in C++", there're many tutorials about it.