In C++, dereferencing a pointer means accessing the value stored at the memory address pointed to by the pointer. Pointers in C++ are variables that store memory addresses. When you dereference a pointer, you retrieve the value stored in the memory location pointed to by the pointer.
To dereference a pointer, you use the dereference operator, which is the asterisk (*) symbol. By placing the asterisk before a pointer variable, you can access the value it points to.
For example, if you have a pointer variable named "ptr" pointing to an integer value, you can dereference it to obtain the actual value like this:
int value = *ptr;
In this case, the variable "value" will contain the value stored at the memory address pointed to by "ptr".
Dereferencing pointers is essential for manipulating and accessing data indirectly in C++. It allows you to work with dynamically allocated memory, pass pointers to functions, and perform operations on objects indirectly.
