@@masasikisimoto26 Bucky covers a lot and does it quick, but he doesn't go to the same depth that Cherno does when describing concepts. Speed isn't always better, and Cherno ensures to cover a lot of important concepts that Bucky doesn't necessarily get to in an appropriate manner. That being said I enjoy both of their videos.
@@DragonKidPlaysMC Rust isn't taking over anything, definitely not C++. You don't realize what you're saying. Apart from some more narrow use cases, C++ will reign supreme for a long time.
@@hmthatsniceiguess2828 Almost the entirety of Firefox is written in Rust. Chromium has started including Rust in it. Hell, even the Linux kernel, which shunned C++ from its codebase, is going to start using Rust in it. C++ is fun to write and experiment in, Rust is not. It's a bit locked down. Rust is fun to write a serious application, when memory leaks become a serious issue and GC isn't an option and smart pointers are too much of a runtime overhead for you liking.
Mate, your videos are the best. Just to give you some insight into the variety of your target group and the impact that your videos are having: I'm an assistent professor in Econometrics at a top international university. As part of my research, I have developed novel statistical estimation procedures that work great for high-dimensional datasets (big data). The estimators can be computationally heavy and I have always programmed them in R, which made the computations painstakingly slow. A year ago, with the help of your videos, I made the switch to C++ (through the use of Rcpp) and my code has sped up x100. Not only have I been able to obtain valuable scientific insights by means of simulations a lot faster now (and publish them faster in academic journals), I have also turned my code into R packages, backprogrammed in C++, and made it available for other researchers. This explanation on passing by reference alone has saved me and researchers using my package a ton of time! Thanks a lot and please keep doing what your doing.
That incrementing integer through memory addresses part is what really blew my bloody mind. Lower level languages never cease to surprise me. Coming from python, I feel like I'm capable of black magic now.
The most articulate videos regarding computer programming that I have ever watched! I know this is a very "old" video at this point and, perhaps, there are better ones to comment on but there are clearly still people benefiting spectacularly from this series. I guess you're still the best of the best!!
@@idk-bv3iw This is why Stroustrup (and everybody else) warns against the preprocessor. Or at least against overuse. But most of the time we are working with 'legacy code', so we have to be aware of the pitfalls and endure the headaches.
Man, you're really awesome. I have seen many many tutorials in many topics before, but I have never seen such high quality nor someone who has such knowledge or clear way to explain things like you. I am really a big fan of yours.
@@daniazzam1161 newer CPP versions almost never affect core concepts such as variables, normal pointers or references so you dont have anything to worry about. Only the advanced concepts of the langauge can change with a new CPP version/standard
I have been a 'C' programmer for over 40 years. I was a systems programmer for Unix. I came here to get an explanation of Variable References and I just want to say thank you. I watched a few other videos but this was the best explanation. Thank you for being simple, concise, and clean in your explanation.
I'm not exactly sure if this series is beginner friendly. There are places where if I was a beginner, I feel like I'd be totally confused (then again that might not be the case for everyone). But as an intermediate programmer coming from C#, this stuff is pure gold. Super helpful and very well explained.
As you say, it's not mean for beginners in programming. But, if you already know the basic concepts of programming like variables, conditionals, loops, functions and clases, then this course is really good.
@@mastershooter64 I've read it a few years after I started learning c++, so I already knew a bit more than just the absolute basics but I think you can also read it earlier. I would not recommend reading it in the first few weeks or so though, because it is very technical and might be confusing. But I think at some point it's very helpful, it's very thick and thorough, it filled many small gaps that I had als self taught c++ programmer.
Thank you Cherno for your high quality videos. I don't normally do projects in C++ but I needed to create a plugin for a program that is written in C++ and your videos made this a breeze.
Better explanation than the one found in the "The C++ programming language" by the creator of C++. There I didn't understand a bit. Here I swiftly got it! Thanks!
In books like that they don't try to be easy to understand. They try to be precise. Well, being easy to understand isn't the primary objective at least.
@@klarnorbert The issue with certain books is they assume prior knowledge in certain areas. It's like if you picked up a calculus book it's going to assume some prior math knowledge. Computer science and programming books can be very much the same. If you're an absolute beginner or nearly that then its something worth looking into before buying a book.
Can you please make a video explaining rvalue references, universal references, std::move and std::forward? Why we need them, when and where we should use them, etc. Thanks.
Hey, great work. I am refreshing my C++ and your videos are great. However, I'd like to point this out: int a = 5, *p_a = &a, &r_a = a; r_a += 5; std::cout
that 3 types of input is amazing! basically included everything you need to know to take advantage of pointer reference and a single variable. Amazing vid!
From an old 'C' programmer trying to break old habits and fully convert to 'C++' way of things, these videos are awesome. Short, simple and to the point and even work at 1.5 playback speed. I now have the urge to find out when references was added to the language and if it has anything to do with ".Net"'s arrival?
Oh man… this was exactly what I needed to see. Thanks for showing the simple example with the reference to a first, then confusing the crap outta me with function example where you use de-referencing and pointers, then getting me back on track with the pass by reference example. I needed to see the easy then convoluted case before I could understand why the final example was the way to go. You clearly thought that through. You’re awesome.
I am serious when I am saying that you are probably the only youtuber that doesn't make me lose concentration or fall asleep after 10 minutes! Thank you
Even though this is about references... Ironically this is an excellent video displaying the usefulness of pointers. Your examples and explanations are top tier.
Semantical nigthmare for adhds and dyslexics folks...it's close, but not the same, it's an int, but it is not....all and nothing at once......................
I have been too lucky to find this course today in RU-vid. It is 12:35 am and I can’t stop watching these amazing tutorial. You should be teaching at Harvard. Please upload videos on optimized C++
My god, all the bulbs are going on(off?). Im enjoying each and every one of these video and also coding along as well using VSCode on Linux. You are a God send👏
I wish he would have explained return by reference too. That shows something that a normal pointer can't do directly. Like, you can make greater(a, b) = 50; or something and the 50 will be assigned to the greater number. Either a will be 50 or b will be 50 depending on which is greater. You can't normally do this with pointer, you would have to copy the function to something.
IMHO in a complex structures it is easier to miss that you deal not with the local variable which was set while calling the function. And you could potentially spend some time debugging that. But it could be really helpful if you find yourself typecasting many times.
Guys if you didn't fully understand the video, I REALLY SUGGEST YOU READ THIS COMMENT. If you don't wanna read all, AT LEAST READ THE LAST SECTION. I HAVE A MINDBLOWING DISCOVERY FOR YOU. References are just reference to a variable, which means that it needs another variable that it is assigned. Otherwise, the compiler is going to throw an error. It is so similar to a pointer in a sense that we can replicate everything that a reference can do with a pointer. --------------------------------------------------- It has the syntax of int& ref = a; --------------------------------------------------- Cherno shows an example where he created a function that increments the value of the integer it takes in as an input. Like this. void increment(int value) { value++; } --------------------------------------------------- However, when he used the function with an integer 'a' created and then printed a to the console, we found that a was still the same value before incrementation #include void increment(int value) { value++; } int main() { int a = 5; increment(a); std::cout
This is one of the things I really dislike about C++. I just don't get why make a weaker version of pointers that cannot be reassigned. (Adding insult to injury by using the same operator for so many damn things: * pointer, * multiply, * dereference, & reference, & address...) ugh the sloppiness of the syntax is really killing me. I think it's probably due to me being used to C/Java for too long...
Lmao. A few years too late Cherno, but I straight failed my CIS class that just taught basic C++ because of this particular chapter kicking my ass. Your explanation just cemented what I felt I found out while working in Unreal engine with their Blueprints. But I was never able to grasp it in a pure C++ environment. Now I do. Thank you man.
Hi everyone! Noob here. Can you please help me understand something? When I call Increment(a), on the stack there will be a copy of variable a. How does the reference work? I mean, Chemo says it isn't an actual variable, it isn't the address of it, it is a label that references the copy on the program stack. So when i increment the value, I'm incrementing the value on the stack. How come this works? When I have a pointer, I'm incrementing the value at the address x. So having the address on the stack is fine because I'm not actually modifying that. But the reference doesn't look at that memory location. I'm confused. The video is great, but I lack some knowledge here. Thanks in advance!
Watching some of your videos as a total beginner in C++ and coding in general I'm like "Oh, now I get it" in the first half to "What the..." towards the end of the video. Great work by the way! Thanks a lot!
Don't use references, pointers blow them away! Don't be afraid of the -> deref operator, its better than the . operator. Mr. TheCherno says references "look nicer in the source code" and "they are just syntactic sugar". Those are not valid justifications for coding practices and references don't look nicer. I say references make the code more complex, harder to understand, and limit what you can do, all because some people says the ->, a core language feature, is unsightly. Unlike many programming languages which believe programmers can't handle pointers, C and C++ don't hide pointers, they successfully deliver the power of pointers. So if you can't understand pointers and hope that references will get you out of it, then you should choose one of those other languages, not C or C++.
*The only pitfall is that you don't know if you are passing var by a reference or by the value.* *This is decided by compiler according to callee declaration.* So this may bring some uncertaincy to the mind... The other ugly thing probably is that when you do not the SCU, changing callee will require caller code recompilation.
Hello Thank s for sharing, if you allow me The Hard Part about pointer and reference is not what is it but when I should use It? (Specaly return Type of function class or template .....)
I feel so incredibly dumb, iv been programming in C and C++ for years on embedded systems, I never realized that a address reference and a reference were different... I just stumbled my way through it when needed and avoided them if possible(on an embedded system avoiding the issue is easy). I think this is single handedly the #1 reason people think ptrs are hard... they don't realize the ampersand has two meanings and de-referencing is a thing. I cannot believe how dumb I feel right now. also I think to hit this topic home(although maybe he will later) mentioning the benefit of using ptr and de-referencing vs a reference would be to allow for function overloading.
What happens if you have a function which takes a const Referenz of an integer value (like so: void func(const int& value)) and you call the function not with a variable of type int but with a raw number (like so: func(1))? I have trouble with such a scenerio and it seems that the behaviour is differnt then when i pass a real variable of type int into the function. Can anyone explain what goes on there?
I keep having to come back to this video over and over, because for some stupid reason I get confused..... (maybe my parents dropped me on my head or something.) but I always thought, that References, reference to the pointer, and the pointer points to the memory location which the variable created....... :(
You are as brilliant as the sun.Thanks a lot. Can we compare references to Linux hard links and pointers to symbolic links? You say pointers and references are easy but when you see them pop up in larger pieces of code it STILL can get confusing....
References are not just "syntax sugar" and are not essentially the same as pointers, and you certainly CANT do everything a reference can do with a pointer... example: you CAN make a reference to a pointer, but you CANT make a pointer to a reference (makes no sense). Also, references can't refer to objects that are meant to change throughout their lifetime.. things that are dynamically allocated on the heap, which pointers were meant to be used. There is a reason references and pointers are confusing, it is not this simple.
My prof says that we should use books instead of watching RU-vid videos... Fuck that guy Yeah of course I read the books too but this much more relatable for me , so thanks for existing
Quick q: why not use a global variable and not define it in the function declaration? That seems easier to read, is it to minimize memory useage? I dont understand... thanks!
I wish the & placement was also discussed, same with the * (or was it discussed in another video?) I was watching the const vid and I am just confused where to properly place that asterisk/ampersand because it seems you can put it right after the type, before the pointer/reference variable, etc.
I don't Know why Should We use Pointers ? And When Should We use it ? Like i search A lot on internet i could not find any Right Answer Can You please Explain It to Me ? why and when should we Use Pointers ?
You skipped over a practical benefit to references over pointers - clarity around the pointer/array ambiguity. It's not just syntactic sugar, but a key part of writing type safe code.
If I understand references correctly then, there would be a marginal benefit to using references over pointers (provided you don't need to change the reference) since you're not allocating memory for a new pointer variable but just "renaming" an existing variable.
Hopefully someone can help me understand this and probably let me know I'm being dumb but at 6:48 when he writes int& how does the program know what int he is referencing?
So actually reference it's giving a "second name to an exist variable". Does a reference take memory? If it's not then isn't better to use a reference because pointers take some memory because you are creating a variable with the address of another variable? Sorry for my english ;)
variable are really just an reference to a memory if you will. A pointer is a special variable which holds memory address but essentially is a reference to a particular memory which will hold an address of another address of memory. The same comparison you did between types of memory. It all does about the same essential thing.
One of my first qustion on intervu was what is difference between pointer and reference. Give specific example? Ther are not the same. Pointer can change what they are pointing to but references canot, pointers can be nullptr.
To directly write to a memory adress could bear the risk of damaging (i e deleting) memory that is used by for instance the operating system and therefor crash the whole system. Right?
