Pointer

Definition

Statement

Declaration of a pointer:
<datatype> POINTER <pointername>
<datatype> * <pointername>

Assignment of a value to the location pointed to:
POINTER <pointername> = <value>;
* <pointername> = <value>;

Concept

Pointers, are used to point to a location in memory. It uses 32 bits (4 bytes) so it can map 4GB of memory into bytes. Pointers can point to any datatype: ints, shorts, strings or even usermade datatypes. However, using a struct pointer my_pointer is pointless, because the compiler has no knowledge of the elements inside the struct pointing to, since it doesn't know which struct is meant, so this is invalid. MyStruct pointer my_pointer, where MyStruct is an existing struct, is also not valid, because MyStruct is not a datatype. The only way to have something like a struct pointer my_pointer is to use Type as seen in the example.

Example

import "mod_say"

Type _point
    int x;
    int y;
End

Type _person
    string name;
    int age;
End

Global
    _person Person;
End

Process Main()
Private
    int my_int;
    int* my_int_pointer;
    _point myPoint;
    _person* personPointer; // possible, because _person is infact a datatype
    //Person* personPointer; // not possible, because Person is not a datatype
Begin

    my_int_pointer = &my_int;

    my_int = 3;
    say(my_int);
    say(*my_int_pointer);
  
    *my_int_pointer = 4;
    say(my_int);
    say(*my_int_pointer);

    setXY(&myPoint);
    say(myPoint.x);
    say(myPoint.y);

    personPointer = &Person;
    personPointer.name = "Mies";
    say(Person.name);
    say(personPointer.name);

End

Function int setXY(_point* p)
Begin
    p.x = 3; // this is actually (*p).x = 3, but . can be used like this
    p.y = 5; // this is actually (*p).y = 5, but . can be used like this
    return 0;
End

Used in example: say(), key(), Type, Global, Private, point

The & (offset) operator, when used with pointers, returns a void pointer to a variable. In the example it returns an int pointer to the variable my_int. The * (pointer) operator, when used with pointers, makes it so the pointer variable is not accessed, but the variable it's pointing to. In the example it changes access from my_int_pointer to my_int.