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A pointer is a programming language object that stores the memory address of another value located in the computer’s memory. To obtain the value referenced by a pointer, you need to dereference it. Dereferencing a pointer means accessing the value stored at the memory address pointed to by the pointer itself. This allows you to retrieve and manipulate the data it points to.<\/p>\n
To obtain the value referenced by a pointer, you can use the dereference operator, also known as the indirection operator or the asterisk (*) symbol. By prefixing the pointer variable’s name with the asterisk symbol, you can access the value stored at the memory location pointed to by the pointer.<\/p>\n
For example, if you have a pointer variable named ptr = &value; \/\/ assigning the memory address of value to ptr int referencedValue = *ptr; \/\/ obtaining the value referenced by ptr In the above code snippet, the asterisk (*) symbol precedes the pointer variable ptr<\/code> that points to an integer, you can obtain the value it references by using the following code:<\/p>\n
\nint *ptr; \/\/ declaration of a pointer variable
\nint value;<\/p>\n
\n*ptr = 42; \/\/ storing the value 42 at the memory location pointed to by ptr<\/p>\n
\n<\/code><\/p>\nptr<\/code> when assigning a value or obtaining a value to\/from the memory address it points to. Therefore, *ptr<\/code> obtains the value referenced by the pointer.<\/p>\n