system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Pointers in programming.
gpt
imagine you have a big store, like an amazon deposit. every shelf and box have a set of coordinates assigned (otherwise good luck finding the correct item there...)  


a box is the data.  

a set of coordinates (for example written on a piece of paper) is a pointer to the data.  


So a supervisor could do 2 things:  


1) give you a box and tell you "open this box and put a book inside it" (accessing a variable directly)  


2) give you a piece of paper and tell you "open the box at these coordinates and put a book inside it" (via a pointer)