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Is passing pointer argument, pass by value in C++? Since i see that any change to the pointer as such is not reflected outside the method. The changes i do by dereferencing the pointer is reflected though.
In that case, is it acceptable/standard procedure to use pointer to pointer as argument to a function to modify the pointer value as such within a function?
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Even though C always uses 'pass by value', it is possible simulate passing by reference by using dereferenced pointers as arguments in the function definition, and passing in the 'address of' operator & on the variables when calling the function.
By default, C programming uses call by value to pass arguments. In general, it means the code within a function cannot alter the arguments used to call the function.
Pass-by-pointer means to pass a pointer argument in the calling function to the corresponding formal parameter of the called function. The called function can modify the value of the variable to which the pointer argument points. When you use pass-by-pointer, a copy of the pointer is passed to the function.
In general, you use references to pointers if you want to pass a pointer to a function and let it move that original pointer to some other position instead of just moving a copy of it without affecting the original.
Yes to both.
Pointers are passed by value as anything else. That means the contents of the pointer variable (the address of the object pointed to) is copied. That means that if you change the value of the pointer in the function body, that change will not be reflected in the external pointer that will still point to the old object. But you can change the value of the object pointed to.
If you want to reflect changes made to the pointer to the external pointer (make it point to something else), you need two levels of indirection (pointer to pointer). When calling functions it's done by putting a & before the name of the pointer. It is the standard C way of doing things.
When using C++, using references is preferred to pointer (henceforth also to pointer to pointer).
For the why references should be preferred to pointers, there is several reasons:
Drawbacks of references are mostly:
In the specific case of pointer to pointer, the difference is mostly simplicity, but using reference it may also be easy to remove both levels of pointers and pass only one reference instead of a pointer to pointer.
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