Assigning a pointer to a reference

Question

I'm using a library which has a draw function which takes a reference to a circle. I wish to call this function but I have a pointer to my circle object. Can I pass this pointed to object to the draw function? If not, why not?

Thanks,

Barry

Answer 1

Yes you can.

You have this function

void DoSth(/*const*/Circle& c)
{
   ///
}

You have this pointer

/*const*/ Circle* p = /*...*/;

You call it like this

DoSth(*p);

I suggest that you should read a good C++ book. This is really fundamental stuff.

Answer 2

As long as pointer is not destroyed while the reference is still being used it is fine.

int *p = new int;
int &r = *p;

Answer 3

Yes you can, just dereference the pointer, example:

void functionToCall(Circle &circle);

//in your code:
Circle *circle = new Circle();
functionToCall(*circle);

Answer 4

It would be easier if you'd supply some code of your problem. But basically it would work like this:

void func(Circle& circle) {
    // do something
}

...
Circle *pCircle = new Circle();
func(*pCircle);