Heap pinter c++

  1. Start by declaring a variable of type pointer. For example, you can declare a pointer to an integer as follows:

int* ptr;

This creates a pointer variable named ptr that can store the memory address of an integer.

  1. Allocate memory for the integer using the new keyword. For example, you can allocate memory for an integer and assign the address to the pointer variable ptr as follows:

ptr = new int;

This dynamically allocates memory for an integer and assigns the address of the allocated memory to the pointer variable ptr.

  1. Assign a value to the memory location pointed to by the pointer variable. For example, you can assign the value 10 to the memory location pointed to by ptr as follows:

*ptr = 10;

The * before ptr is the dereference operator, which allows you to access the value stored at the memory location pointed to by ptr.

  1. Use the value stored at the memory location pointed to by the pointer variable. For example, you can print the value stored at the memory location pointed to by ptr as follows:

cout << *ptr;

This will output the value 10 to the console.

  1. Release the allocated memory using the delete keyword. For example, you can release the memory allocated for the integer pointed to by ptr as follows:

delete ptr;

This frees the memory allocated for the integer and deallocates the memory.

  1. Set the pointer variable to nullptr to avoid accessing invalid memory. For example, you can set ptr to nullptr as follows:

ptr = nullptr;

Setting a pointer variable to nullptr is a good practice to avoid accessing invalid memory after the memory has been deallocated.

Note: It's important to remember that when using heap memory allocation, it is your responsibility to deallocate the memory using delete to avoid memory leaks.