Question

How does a variable in C/C++ work?

I mean, a pointer stores an address from a variable and then you have to dereference it to access the object to which it refers, so I think that a variable is a pointer that is dereferenced automatically when used… does that make any sense?

Answer 1

A variable is an abstraction (a convenient name) for a memory position on the computer. In C/C++ if the variable is of type int it will be a convenient name for a memory address holding an integer value.

And a variable is not a pointer automatically dereferenced. A variable just holds the value it is supposed to hold. If it is a pointer, it will hold a memory address, if it is an integer it will hold an integer value, if it is a float, it will hold a floating point number… And so on and so forth…