--- title: "Pointers (C++)" ms.date: "11/19/2019" description: "About raw pointers and smart pointers in Microsoft C++." helpviewer_keywords: ["pointers (C++)"] ms.assetid: 595387c5-8e58-4670-848f-344c7caf985e --- # Pointers (C++) A pointer is a variable that stores the memory address of an object. Pointers are used extensively in both C and C++ for three main purposes: - to allocate new objects on the heap, - to pass functions to other functions - to iterate over elements in arrays or other data structures. In C-style programming, *raw pointers* are used for all these scenarios. However, raw pointers are the source of many serious programming errors. Therefore, their use is strongly discouraged except where they provide a significant performance benefit and there is no ambiguity as to which pointer is the *owning pointer* that is responsible for deleting the object. Modern C++ provides *smart pointers* for allocating objects, *iterators* for traversing data structures, and *lambda expressions* for passing functions. By using these language and library facilities instead of raw pointers, you will make your program safer, easier to debug, and simpler to understand and maintain. See [Smart pointers](smart-pointers-modern-cpp.md), [Iterators](../standard-library/iterators.md), and [Lambda expressions](lambda-expressions-in-cpp.md) for more information. ## In this section - [Raw pointers](raw-pointers.md) - [Const and volatile pointers](const-and-volatile-pointers.md) - [new and delete operators](new-and-delete-operators.md) - [Smart pointers](smart-pointers-modern-cpp.md) - [How to: Create and use unique_ptr instances](how-to-create-and-use-unique-ptr-instances.md) - [How to: Create and use shared_ptr instances](how-to-create-and-use-shared-ptr-instances.md) - [How to: Create and use weak_ptr instances](how-to-create-and-use-weak-ptr-instances.md) - [How to: Create and use CComPtr and CComQIPtr instances](how-to-create-and-use-ccomptr-and-ccomqiptr-instances.md) ## See also [Iterators](../standard-library/iterators.md) [Lambda expressions](lambda-expressions-in-cpp.md)