title: Are there benefits of passing by pointer over passing by reference in C++?
body: <p>What are the benefits of passing by pointer over passing by reference in C++?</p>
  
  <p>Lately, I have seen a number of examples that chose passing function arguments by pointers instead of passing by reference.  Are there benefits to doing this?</p>
  
  <p>Example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>func(SPRITE *x);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>with a call of</p>
  
  <pre><code>func(&amp;mySprite);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>vs.</p>
  
  <pre><code>func(SPRITE &amp;x);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>with a call of</p>
  
  <pre><code>func(mySprite);
  </code></pre>