7. Why use pointers?

• The pointers provide indirect access to our variables. For example,

  
      int main( )
      {
          // Local variables:
          int x = 5;
          double d = 0.1;
  
          // We need pointers to store addresses:
          int* x_ptr = &x;
          double* d_ptr = &d;
  
          // Use pointers to modify variables:
          *x_ptr = 10;  // same as x = 10;
          *d_ptr = 0.2; // same as d = 0.2;
  
          return 0;
      }
  
  

• But what is the asterisk * doing in front of the pointer???