Commit b947343

ms.date: "11/08/2019"

A pointer is a variable that stores the memory address of an object. Pointers are used extensively in both C and C++ for three purposes:

2. to pass larger objects to functions,

3. to pass functions to other functions

4. to iterate over elements in arrays or other data structures.

In C-style programming, *raw pointers* are used for all these scenarios. However, pointer errors are by far the greatest cause of crashes, hangs, data corruption, security holes, and general programmer misery. In modern C++, the use of *raw pointers* is strongly discouraged except in scenarios where they provide a significant performance benefit. 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.