title: What is the difference between passing by reference in Java and passing a pointer in C?
body: <p>I have been studying Java for a few months and am now starting to learn C. </p>
  
  <p>I am a little confused, I was under the impression that passing an object by reference and passing a pointer to that object were the same thing: I thought the difference was that in Java all passing of objects is done with pointers automatically, where as in C one has to actually sprinkle little asterisks and ampersands here and there. Recently, in conversation, I was assured that there was a difference!</p>
  
  <p>What is the difference between passing by reference and passing a pointer?</p>