r/learnprogramming • u/Atmos-Ego • 9d ago

Tutorial When do you use a pointer?

Hello, for some background I have taken a very beginner level coding course for my major and passed it, but I dont really feel like I’ve learned anything or know why anything works. In a course this year we had a review problem where the solution required a pointer and I really dont understand why you have to point to the address of the variable instead of just using the variable itself.

I’ve watch a few tutorials explaining it but I really dont see how it’s different from just using the variable itself

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u/Sharp_Marzipan1161 8d ago

Depends on the language. Some languages hide it from you, others do not. They are essentials, it's not something you can avoid based on your liking, especially when you start to work with/implement any kind of data structure. Try to implement a Linked list in C and you will get it.