A pointer is a variable whose value is the location (or memory address) of some other variable. This concept is so basic yet so essential to understanding pointers that it bears repeating.
A variable identifies a value stored at a fixed location. It consists of a type and an identifier. Implicit in the definition is its location. This location is fixed and cannot be changed. The value is stored at that location. The location is primarily determined by where a variable is declared in a program. The variable identifier, then, is our assigned name for the location of that value; it is a named location to store a value of a given type. We rarely, if ever, care about the specific value of that location—in fact, we never do. So, we never care about the specific address of a variable. We only care about the name of the location or our variable identifier.
A pointer variable, like any other variable, also identifies a value stored at a fixed...