compiler error saying invalid initialization of reference of type something& from expression of type something*

Question

I have a function prototype like

test(something &)

and i am doing

something *ss = new something();

Answer 1

Your function expects a reference to something, and you are passing it a pointer to something. You need to de-reference the pointer:

test(*ss);

That way the function takes a reference to the object pointed at by ss. If you had a something object, you could pass that directly to:

something sss;
test(sss); // test takes a reference to the sss object.

Answer 2

Your function expects a normal something object. You don't need to use a pointer here:

something ss;

test(ss);

When your function signature looks like f(T&), it means that it accepts a reference to a T object. When the signature is f(T*), it means that it accepts a pointer to a T object.

Answer 3

you are confused by reference and address of variable.

If your function prototype is:

test(something &)

You could call it with something object:

something ss;
test(ss);

You could call it with something pointer:

 something *ss = new something();
 test(*ss);

If your function is:

test(something *)

You could call:

something *ss = new something();
test(ss);