Questions related to teaching about pointers or references. Use this tag to ask about teaching various aspects and points regarding pointers.
Pointers take two forms in modern computing languages. There is the view of languages like C in which a pointer is a direct reference to a location and can be manipulated as if it is an unsigned integer, say to step through an array.
There is also a more abstract view, the reference, in which "something like" a pointer is used to get access to a value, perhaps an object. This is a non-computational view of "pointer." In languages like Java, the implementation of a reference is purposely left undefined.
Since questions involving pointers and references often confuse the two, one tag is appropriate for both, but question proposers are encouraged to distinguish as far as possible between the concepts, consistent with the intent of the question.
However, this tag (and this site) is not appropriate for theoretical aspects, but for the use in effective teaching.
