ISRO CSE 2014 | Question: 13

Question

Which of the following is true with respect to Reference?

• A. A reference can never be NULL
• B. A reference needs an explicit dereferencing mechanism
• C. A reference can be reassigned after it is established
• D. A reference and pointer are synonymous

Comments

https://gateoverflow.in/tag/isro2014?start=60/

Answer 1

A) References cannot be null,every reference refers to some object, although it may or may not be valid.

B) Reference doesn't need an explicit dereferencing mechanism

C) Once a reference is created, it cannot be later made to reference another object.

D) They are entirely different concept. Pointer stores the address whereas Reference is an alias of some variable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_(C%2B%2B)

Comments

Pointer	Reference
Used in C to refer an address int A = 5; int *ptr = &A;	Special datatype used in C++ to refer an object int A = 5; int& rA = A;
A pointer can be reassigned after it is established	A reference cannot be reassigned after it is established
Can be null	Cannot be null

Hence answer is A

Hope this comparison will give clarity

---

Pointer is also in C++.

---

is it only the case of c and c++ ??

as in java we dont have pointers but we have ref ryt ?? and null can be assign them...

---

Why are assuming reference in C++ because in question it is not written

Answer 2

like that can u provide link for ISRO-2015??