When Should You Pass a Pointer by Reference in C ?

Reason to Pass a Pointer by Reference in C

In programming, passing arguments to functions can be done by value or by reference. When passing by value, a copy of the argument is created and passed to the function, while when passing by reference, the address of the argument is passed.

In C , pointers are typically used to pass values to functions. However, there are times when it is necessary to pass a pointer by reference. This is done using the & operator, as shown in the code example in the question:

The code above shows a function foo() that takes a pointer to a type as an argument. The argument is passed by reference, meaning that the address of the pointer is passed to the function. This allows the function to modify the pointer itself, rather than just the value that the pointer points to.

This is useful when you need to change the pointer itself, rather than just the object that the pointer points to. For example, you might need to do this if you are implementing a linked list and you need to insert a new node into the list. In this case, you would need to pass the pointer to the head of the list by reference so that the function can modify the pointer to insert the new node.

Passing a pointer by reference is also safer than using double pointers. Double pointers are pointers to pointers, and they can be difficult to manage. By using a reference to a pointer instead, you can avoid the risks associated with double pointers.

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