title: Pass by Reference v. Pass by Pointer -- Merits?
body: <blockquote>
    <p><strong>Possible Duplicates:</strong><br>
    <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2550377/when-pass-by-pointer-is-preferred-to-pass-by-reference-in-c">When pass-by-pointer is preferred to pass-by-reference in C++?</a><br>
    <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/334856/are-there-benefits-of-passing-by-pointer-over-passing-by-reference-in-c">Are there benefits of passing by pointer over passing by reference in C++?</a><br>
    <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2139224/how-to-pass-objects-to-functions-in-c">How to pass objects to functions in C++?</a>  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  
  
  <p>Hi all,
  I'm working to develop a large object oriented c++ application framework as part of my chemical engineering graduate research.  </p>
  
  <p>I find that many of my functions take pointers to custom objects or STL objects.  I find that in terms of writing code, this makes it harder to access functions or variables stored within.</p>
  
  <p>Aside from simplicity, though, is there any advantages/disadvantages to passing by reference v. passing by pointer?</p>
  
  <p>If there is an advantage to one over the other, I'll probably look to refactor my code to uniformly use whatever approach is optimal.  If there isn't I may still refactor to consistently use pass by reference for readability (i.e. not having to dereference)</p>
  
  <p>Again I want to make the best decision as my framework is already 40+ files large, so I want to implement as uniform structure as I can, as early as I can, and with whatever the optimal method is.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance!</p>