Difference between pointer variable and simple variable

A variable has 3 things when you make them :
int <- type
x <- name
=3 <- data

A pointer doesn't have any data in themself, they "point" to a variable.
Like this :

int x = 3;
int *x = x


now the *x is 3, because it "points" to the x variable ( actually it points to it's memory address )

*x = 6 means that where the pointer is pointing ( the memory part ) will be filled with this data.


a little more thing:

incrementing ( i++ ) a pointer can do two different things :
(*x) ++ adds +1 to the value , while
*x++ will move the "pointing" to the next thing in the memory ( if we are not talking about an array, then it's usually memory garbage )
**************************************************************************************


normal variable stores a value of the given datatype where
as the pointer variable stores the address of a variable.

for example int n=10;
int *p;
p=&n;
here p is a pointer variable and n is a normal
variable.p stores the address of n where as n stores an
integer value.
*p prints the value of n,p prints the address
of n.