Using Pointers in C++

Pointers are clearly very important in C++, but as with any powerful feature, there are issues and dangers, so it is worth pointing out some of the major issues. A pointer points to a single location in memory, and the type of the pointer indicates how the memory location should be interpreted. The very most you can assume is the number of bytes at that position in memory is the size of the type of the pointer. That's it. This means that pointers are inherently unsafe. However, in C++ they are the quickest way to enable code within your process to access large amounts of data.

Accessing out of Bounds

When you allocate a buffer, whether on the stack or on the free store, and you get a pointer, there is little to stop you from accessing memory you have not allocated--either before or after the position of the buffer. This means that when you use pointer arithmetic, or indexed access on arrays, that you check carefully that you are not going to access data out of bounds...