The address or reference of a data item which allows it to be retrieved without further searching. For example, a database, which stores information about students, may use pointers to identify students in a particular class. It may use one pointer to locate the first student and further pointers between the students. In this way, to find the students in a class, the pointers allow the next student in the class to be accessed without searching other parts of the database. Pointers allow fast access to data because little searching is required. When used on data stored in the computer