What Is a Reference?

A reference is an alias. When you create a reference, you initialize it with the name of another object, the target. From that moment on, the reference acts as an alternative name for the target, and anything you do to the reference is really done to the target.

That's it. You might read in some sources that references are pointers, but that is not correct. Although references are often implemented using pointers, that is a matter of concern only to creators of compilers; as a programmer you must keep these two ideas distinct.

Pointers are variables that hold the address of another object. References are aliases to an object.