A pointer specifies where a value resides in the computer's memory (like a house number specifies where a particular family resides on a street).

A pointer points to an address not to a data container of any kind!

Simple example declarations:

  using namespace std; // note use of namespace
  int main()
 {
   // what are the differences?
   int var;
   cin >> var;
   int *p, q;
   int *s, *t;
   int * a new[var];    // dynamic memory allocation
   delete [] a;
}