Dereferencing a pointer means getting the value that is stored in the memory location pointed by the pointer. The operator
is used to do this, and is called the dereferencing operator.
int a = 10;
int* ptr = &a;
printf("%d", *ptr); // With *ptr I'm dereferencing the pointer.
// Which means, I am asking the value pointed at by the pointer.
// ptr is pointing to the location in memory of the variable a.
// In a's location, we have 10. So, dereferencing gives this value.
// Since we have indirect control over a's location, we can modify its content using the pointer. This is an indirect way to access a.
ptr = 20; // Now a's content is no longer 10, and has been modified to 20.
