C++ pointer or simply a pointer is a simple variable that has the capability to store the memory address of some location.

Lets discuss a small program for illustration:

int * p;
int q=10;
p=&q;
cout<<"Address of q is: "<<p<<endl;
cout<<"Value of q is: "<<*p<<endl;

[*]Here p is a pointer variable and q is a simple interger variable.
[*]& is the address operator. So when we've the statement p=&q, we are actually initializing p with the memory address of q.
[*]As memory addresses are generally of hexadecimal type, so p now also has some hexadecimal value.
[*]p as such has no data type. But int *p means that the data type of the contents of memory location referenced by p (i.e. q) is interger.
[*]So p is also called pointer to integer.
[*]Displaying p will display the memory address of the variable q.
[*]*p displays the content of the memory location it refers to i.e. value of q.