& is sometimes referred to as the Referencing Operator. It’s a one-of-a-kind operator. The variable name that is used in conjunction with the Address of operator must be the name of a previously declared variable.

Using the & operator with a variable returns the variable’s address number.

Here’s an example of how the operator’s address can be used.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
 
int main()
{
    int a = 10;
    cout << "Address of variable a is " << &a << endl;
    return 0;
}

Output:

0x61febc

The Indirection Operator

 * is also known as the Dereferencing Operator. It is a unary operator. It takes an address as an argument and returns the content/container whose address is the argument.

Here’s one example of how to utilise the indirection operator.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
 
int main()
{
    int a = 100;
    cout << "Value of variable a stored at address " << &a << " is " << (*(&a)) << endl;
    return 0;
}

Output

Value of variable a stored at address 0x61febc is 100

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