Does a reference create a new location in memory, or an alias for an existing cell? [duplicate]

Question

I am learning about pointers and references, and my question refers to this explanation, in particular the following section:

This suggests that the declaration int& ri = i creates a new memory cell, which has a value of &i and exists in unknown memory location.

To test this theory, I wrote a simple case, the result which is seen below:

I am perplexed by the fact that r and i have the same memory address, which seems to contradict the readings. The result suggests that int& ri = i loosely means "create an alias for memory cell i and call it r" such that both refer to exactly the same cell.

Is the document correct, or have I missed something?

Answer 1

Since r is a reference to i, all operations on r are transformed by the compiler into operations on i. So doing &r, gives you the memory address i is in.

(Note that unlike pointers, references have the property of not being 're-referenced' after declared - they always reference the same thing - so there is no way to write operations that operate 'on the reference', not 'on what is referenced')