In C++, you can use references to modify the original value of a variable. A reference is an alias for an existing variable, allowing you to access and modify its value directly. By passing a variable as a reference to a function, you can modify its value outside of that function. Let’s take a look at an example:

#include <iostream>

// Function that modifies the referenced variable
void modifyValue(int& num) {
    num = 10;
}

int main() {
    int num = 5;

    std::cout << "Before modification: " << num << std::endl;

    // Pass the variable as a reference to the function
    modifyValue(num);

    std::cout << "After modification: " << num << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

In the above example, we have a function modifyValue that takes an integer reference as a parameter. Inside the function, we modify the value of the referenced variable to 10. In the main function, we declare an integer num and display its initial value. We then call the modifyValue function and pass num as a reference. After the function call, we display the updated value of num and observe that it has been modified to 10.

Using references to modify variables is a powerful feature in C++. It allows for efficient and clean code, as you don’t need to return values from functions or use pointers to achieve similar behavior. Remember that when passing a variable as a reference, any changes made to it inside the function will affect the original variable outside of the function.

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