What’s the point of const pointers?

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const is a tool which you should use in pursuit of a very important C++ concept:

Find bugs at compile-time, rather than run-time, by getting the compiler to enforce what you mean.

Even though it doesn’t change the functionality, adding const generates a compiler error when you’re doing things you didn’t mean to do. Imagine the following typo:

void foo(int* ptr)
{
    ptr = 0;// oops, I meant *ptr = 0
}

If you use int* const, this would generate a compiler error because you’re changing the value to ptr. Adding restrictions via syntax is a good thing in general. Just don’t take it too far — the example you gave is a case where most people don’t bother using const.

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