Using pointers?

[mighty asker]

Hello. I'm trying to get into pointers.
Let's say this was real program.

//...
else if (mood == "drunk")
	{
		const double tip = bill*0.15;
		const double n = find_first_digit(tip);
		cout << setprecision(5)<< pow(tip, n) << endl;
	}
//... 

Wouldn't be nice if tip and n were pointers which I could delete? If so, how do I do it?

[TarikNeaj]

I dont see why it would be nice to have them be pointers. But either way, since you mentioned you wanted to delete them, I assume you want to allocate memory. Here -

double* tip = new double;
	tip = bill*0.15;
	double* n = new double;
	n = find_first_digit(tip);

	delete tip;
	delete n;

http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/dynamic/

[mighty asker]

TarikNeaj,
Well, isn't that the main purpose of the pointers (to create and delete something during the program)?

[TarikNeaj]

Not necessarily. Pointers are also used with arrays. You cant pass an array to a function without a pointer.

Lots of threads to read.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22146094/why-should-i-use-a-pointer-rather-than-the-object-itself

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/162941/why-use-pointers

Edit: Thought [] and * was the same when passing an array to a function, my bad.

[Little Bobby Tables]

Well, isn't that the main purpose of the pointers (to create and delete something during the program)?

the main purpose of a pointer is to point to a section a memory for a certain amount of time.

You cant pass an array to a function without a pointer.

yes you can. this is perfectly valid c++:

void foo(int arr[]) {
    std::cout << arr;
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    int arr[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
    foo(arr);
}

[mighty asker]

TarikNeaj,
I will read this stuff. So, in the code you wrote I could treat n and tip like ordinary variables?

[TarikNeaj]

Yes.