Help with pointers

[Xathael]

Hello. I've been studying pointers and wrote a code that shows an error for some reason. The target of the function is to get 2 strings (name and last name) and 2 pointers and make the pointers point to the strings.
My function is:

void GetName(string &name, string &last, string *theName, string *thelast)
{
	theName = &name;
	thelast = &last;
}

my main code:

int main()
{
	string name, last;
	cout << "Enter your name\n";
	cin >> name;
	cout << "Enter your last name\n";
	cin >> last;
	string *p_name = NULL, *p_last = NULL;
	GetName(name, last, p_name, p_last);
	cout << "You are : " << name << " " << last << " \n";
}

that doesn't work. But once I delete the function and use the code without it it works perfectly

int main()
{
	string name, last;
	cout << "Enter your name\n";
	cin >> name;
	cout << "Enter your last name\n";
	cin >> last;
	string *p_name = NULL, *p_last = NULL;
	//GetName(name, last, p_name, p_last);
	p_name = &name;
	p_last = &last;
	cout << "You are : " << name << " " << last << " \n";
}

why isn't my code working when I use a function but it does when I just use the code by itself?
Thanks in advance.

edit: The code compiles perfectly but the p_name and p_last are probably not set right and when I try to change them (for example *p_name = "Dave") it shows an error when I debug.

[Athar]

You assign values to the local variables theName and thelast, which are destroyed when the function exits.
If you want to change the original arguments that were passed, use references.

[Xathael]

tried changing the function to look like this:

void GetName(string &name, string &last, string &theName, string &thelast)
{
	theName = name;
	thelast = last;
}

and in the code:

	GetName(name, last, *p_name, *p_last);

but didn't see any changes. Still the same error... I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

[Athar]

This makes no sense. It's not allowed to dereference null pointers, so this is wrong:
*p_name, *p_last

string &theName, string &thelast

These are references to strings. However, p_name and p_last are not strings, they're pointers to a string (string*).