Although technically a reference isn't quite the same as a pointer, if you are used to thinking in pointer terms then conceptually references are just easier to use pointers!
Remember it was stated that References must be initialized when created. In a class, you will get compile errors unless you initialize a reference from an initializer list. Why is this?
Unassigned References
Unattached references cannot exist. A declaration like map & m;
Where map is some known class is not allowed unless it is initialized and the only place to do this is in the initializer list of a constructor.
Example 8_4 on the next page shows an example of this taken from a game with a map and one or more armies that must be located on the map.

