Why should I use a pointer rather than the object itself?

Question

I\'m coming from a Java background and have started working with objects in C++. But one thing that occurred to me is that people often use pointers to objects rather than t

Answer 1

There are many use cases for pointers.

Polymorphic behavior. For polymorphic types, pointers (or references) are used to avoid slicing:

class Base { ... };
class Derived : public Base { ... };

void fun(Base b) { ... }
void gun(Base* b) { ... }
void hun(Base& b) { ... }

Derived d;
fun(d);    // oops, all Derived parts silently "sliced" off
gun(&d);   // OK, a Derived object IS-A Base object
hun(d);    // also OK, reference also doesn't slice

Reference semantics and avoiding copying. For non-polymorphic types, a pointer (or a reference) will avoid copying a potentially expensive object

Base b;
fun(b);  // copies b, potentially expensive 
gun(&b); // takes a pointer to b, no copying
hun(b);  // regular syntax, behaves as a pointer

Note that C++11 has move semantics that can avoid many copies of expensive objects into function argument and as return values. But using a pointer will definitely avoid those and will allow multiple pointers on the same object (whereas an object can only be moved from once).

Resource acquisition. Creating a pointer to a resource using the new operator is an anti-pattern in modern C++. Use a special resource class (one of the Standard containers) or a smart pointer (std::unique_ptr<> or std::shared_ptr<>). Consider:

{
    auto b = new Base;
    ...       // oops, if an exception is thrown, destructor not called!
    delete b;
}

vs.

{
    auto b = std::make_unique();
    ...       // OK, now exception safe
}

A raw pointer should only be used as a "view" and not in any way involved in ownership, be it through direct creation or implicitly through return values. See also this Q&A from the C++ FAQ.

More fine-grained life-time control Every time a shared pointer is being copied (e.g. as a function argument) the resource it points to is being kept alive. Regular objects (not created by new, either directly by you or inside a resource class) are destroyed when going out of scope.