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<h1>Understanding Passing by Reference vs. Passing by Value</h1>
<p>When working with programming languages, it is common to come across the concepts of passing by reference and passing by value. These are two different ways in which data can be passed between functions or methods. While both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, it is important to understand the differences between them in order to use them effectively in our code.</p>
<h2>What is Passing by Reference?</h2>
<p>Passing by reference involves passing the memory address of a variable to a function, rather than its actual value. This means that any changes made to the variable within the function will also affect the original variable outside of the function. In other words, the function has direct access to the original variable and can modify it directly.</p>
<p>For example, let's say we have a function that takes in an integer variable and increments its value by 1:</p>
<code>void incrementByRef(int &num){
num += 1;
}</code>
<p>In this function, we are passing the variable 'num' by reference, denoted by the '&' symbol before the variable name. This means that any changes made to 'num' within the function will also be reflected in the original variable passed to the function.</p>
<p>So if we have the following code:</p>
<code>int number = 5;
incrementByRef(number);
cout << number << endl;</code>
<p>The output will be 6, as the value of 'number' was directly modified by the function.</p>
<h2>What is Passing by Value?</h2>
<p>Passing by value, on the other hand, involves creating a copy of the variable and passing that copy to the function. This means that any changes made to the variable within the function will not affect the original variable outside of the function. In other words, the function only has access to a copy of the variable, not the original.</p>
<p>Using the same example as before, let's say we have a function that takes in an integer variable and increments its value by 1:</p>
<code>void incrementByVal(int num){
num += 1;
}</code>
<p>In this function, we are passing the variable 'num' by value, which means that any changes made to 'num' within the function will not affect the original variable passed to the function.</p>
<p>So if we have the following code:</p>
<code>int number = 5;
incrementByVal(number);
cout << number << endl;</code>
<p>The output will still be 5, as the value of 'number' was not directly modified by the function.</p>
<h2>When to Use Passing by Reference vs. Passing by Value</h2>
<p>So now that we understand the differences between the two methods, when should we use passing by reference and when should we use passing by value?</p>
<p>Passing by reference is often used when we want to modify the original variable passed to the function, rather than just its value. This can be useful when dealing with large data structures, as creating a copy of the variable can be time-consuming and
