Wrox Press C++ Tutorial

Chapter 3 - Arrays, Pointers and References

So far, we've covered all the basic data types of consequence and have accumulated a basic knowledge of how to perform calculations and make decisions in a program. This chapter is about broadening the application of the basic programming techniques that we have covered so far, from using single data elements to working with whole collections of data items. In this chapter, you will learn:

• What an array is and how you can use it
  
  
• How to declare and initialize arrays of different types
  
  
• How to declare and use multidimensional arrays
  
  
• What a pointer is and how you can use it
  
  
• How to declare and initialize pointers of different types
  
  
• The relationship between arrays and pointers
  
  
• What a reference is, how it is declared, and some initial ideas on its uses
  
  
• How to create and allocate memory for variables dynamically