I understand that pointer has reference to object? In order not to duplicate it

class A 
{
    A(){};
}
A *ptrA;

1. why do we need a pointer to own class?
2. how does it work?

CodePudding user response：

The type of ptrA is A * which mean class A pointer, so, ptrA is pointer of type class A.
It can hold the reference of memory of object of type A.

Example:

#include <iostream>

class A {
public:
    A() {
        std::cout << "Constructor" << std::endl;
    }
    void test() {
        std::cout << "test() member function" << std::endl;
    }
    ~A() {
        std::cout << "Destructor" << std::endl;
    }
};

int main() {
    A* ptrA = new A(); // Dynamic allocation of object of type A
    ptrA->test();
    delete ptrA;       // Delete the object created dynamically

    A objA;            // object of type A created locally

    ptrA = &objA;      // ptrA assigned address of object objA
    ptrA->test();

    return 0;
}