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When an aggregate is entirely composed of the same type of primitive, the aggregate may be called an array; in a sense, a multi-byte word primitive is an array of bytes, and some programs use words in this way. A pointer is a programming concept used in computer science to reference or point to a memory location that stores a value or an object.
A function pointer, also called a subroutine pointer or procedure pointer, is a pointer referencing executable code, rather than data. Dereferencing the function pointer yields the referenced function , which can be invoked and passed arguments just as in a normal function call.
Wild pointers are created by omitting necessary initialization prior to first use. Thus, strictly speaking, every pointer in programming languages which do not enforce initialization begins as a wild pointer. This most often occurs due to jumping over the initialization, not by omitting it. Most compilers are able to warn about this.
Pages in category "Pointers (computer programming)" The following 10 pages are in this category, out of 10 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. D.
Many languages have explicit pointers or references. Reference types differ from these in that the entities they refer to are always accessed via references; for example, whereas in C++ it's possible to have either a std:: string and a std:: string *, where the former is a mutable string and the latter is an explicit pointer to a mutable string (unless it's a null pointer), in Java it is only ...
Because pointers store a memory location's address, instead of a value directly, inappropriate use of pointers can lead to undefined behavior in a program, particularly due to dangling pointers or wild pointers. Smart pointers are opaque data structures that act like pointers but can only be accessed through particular methods.
Context sensitivity or polyvariance: Pointer analyses may qualify points-to information with a summary of the control flow leading to each program point. Flow sensitivity : An analysis can model the impact of intraprocedural control flow on points-to facts.
In computer programming, an indirection (also called a reference) is a way of referring to something using a name, reference, or container instead of the value itself. The most common form of indirection is the act of manipulating a value through its memory address. For example, accessing a variable through the use of a pointer.