Pass by reference to functions

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I meant to ask in both of the functions below, parameters are getting the values by reference or what? What's the difference between the two?

int main()
{
int a,b;
Stack stack_numbers
cin&gt;&gt;a&gt;&gt;b;
call (&amp;a,&amp;b);
do_command(stored_numbers);
}

Function 1

call(int *a1,int *b1)
{
//whatever
}

Function 2

bool do_command(Stack &numbers)
{
//whatver
}

Posted 23-Dec-10 18:51pm

optimus_prime1

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3 solutions

Solution 3

Go through the links :

http://www.oocities.com/sstutor/pointer2a.htm[^]

http://www.geekinterview.com/question_details/14458[^]

I am sure after this you can answer the questions yourself!

Posted 23-Dec-10 19:10pm

Tarun.K.S

Comments

optimus_prime1 24-Dec-10 1:25am

Ok, I get this
One is C style pass I was using and the other is C++ style pass by refernce.
Thanks for the nice link. Its really cluttered sometimes on the web. :)

Tarun.K.S 24-Dec-10 1:31am

You are welcome!

Solution 2

Do you know the concept of Call by value and call by reference ??
Please search google...

Posted 23-Dec-10 19:09pm

ShilpiP

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T2102 · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-23T19:08:00

Avoid pointer use in function prototypes when possible, renders compilers unable to make many optimizations. Prefer to use reference, so you at least do not need to check against null pointer. The cases where you would pass in a pointer might relate to the use of void * or inheritance.

Pass by reference or const reference should be preferred for classes for efficiency, but pass by value is acceptable for fundamental types since they are more likely to go into registers.

Note that pass by value makes a copy of the structure, that's why it is highly inefficient except for fundamental types.