When is it preferable to store data members as references instead of pointers?

Question

Let\'s say I have an object Employee_Storage that contains a database connection data member. Should this data member be stored as a pointer or as a reference?

Answer 1

It is almost never prefereable to store references as data members, and a lot of the time it is impossible. If the objects must be assignable (as they must to be stored in a standard library container), references cannot be used. Also, references cannot be reseated, so once a reference is initialised with an object, it cannot be made to refer to a different object.

See this question Should I prefer pointers or references in member data? for a more detailed discussion of the issue.