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C++ References


Creating References

A reference variable is a "reference" to an existing variable, and it is created with the & operator:

string food = "Pizza";  // food variable
string &meal = food;    // reference to food

Now, we can use either the variable name food or the reference name meal to refer to the food variable:

Example

string food = "Pizza";
string &meal = food;

cout << food << "\n";  // Outputs Pizza
cout << meal << "\n";  // Outputs Pizza
Try it Yourself »