Coming from Java, I didn't understand the point of pointers (no pun intended) until I was re-reading through chapter 1 of K&R C.

At one point, they mention how when you pass a variable into a function, it only passes the value really, "copying" the variable, in a way. Then they go on to say that changing the original variable is talked about in chapter 5, which covers pointers. Then it just clicked. If you want to change the original value, pass a pointer to said variable. If you want to just use the value of a variable, pass the variable through the function.

It's so much easier than what I was doing before, assigning the variable to the return value of a function.