RE: **Pointers

["Nicolay, Paul" <paul_nicolay@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I'll try to be short... a pointer by itself is nothing more than a datatype,
and actually holds the address of a memory location.  What is stored at that
memory location is unknown by the pointer itself.

In C however, when you write *char... it means a pointer to a character
array (in other words a string).  Since C doesn't have the concept of a
string like in RPG, they usually null terminate it, meaning that x number of
bytes further than the memory address a hex null is stored to indicate the
end of the string.

Kind regards,
Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: Sunil [mailto:sunil_ramakumar@USSWI.com]
Sent: 30 May, 2002 16:34
To: rpg400-l@midrange.com
Subject: **Pointers


Hai,

I am a bit new to pointers and the related stuff in RPG. I am confused when
some authors say *char, string* etc.
As far as my understanding goes you cant define a datatype for a pointer (
infact pointer itself is a datatype, right!!).
Am I right? If I am what does *char mean?
Does it simply refer to the data that we know must is stored in the memory
space pointed by the pointer?

Regards

Sunil


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