15SMART POINTERS
A pointer is a general concept for a variable that contains an address in memory. This address refers to, or “points at,” some other data. The most common kind of pointer in Rust is a reference, which you learned about in Chapter 4. References are indicated by the & symbol and borrow the value they point to. They don’t have any special capabilities other than referring to data. Also, they don’t have any overhead and are the kind of pointer we use most often.
Smart pointers, on the other hand, are data structures that not only act like a pointer but also have additional metadata and capabilities. The concept of smart pointers isn’t ...
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