system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why pointers?

I have been getting into learning C++.  I am not a beginner to programming, but I am only around intermediate, at best.

I have followed many tutorials and videos on how to use pointers and references, and have a pretty good grasp on them.  However, none of the videos or tutorials seems to teach when or why they are used or why they are useful. 

I've done a lot of searching, but I cannot seem to find a reason why they are such a great thing.  I believe they are, but just want to understand the 'why' of it!

So, as my title says: Why pointers?

Edit: Thank you to everyone who chimed in on my post.  I feel I have a much better understanding now!
gpt
> Why pointers?

If you have a big chunk of data you need to pass to a function, would you like to create a copy of all that data and pass it (i.e. passing by value), or just pass the address of it (i.e. passing by pointer)?