Thread: Origin of pointer syntax

Originally Posted by dudeomanodude

Why is that? What is the commonality between declaring a pointer and dereferencing it?

Compare these two declarations:

Code:

int x;
int *y;

The first one says, "x is an integer." The second one, although technically declaring a pointer, can be thought of as saying, "*y is an integer." Therefore, y must be "something" which, when you stick a star on the front of it, is an integer. In other words, a pointer to an integer.

So the declaration syntax is borrowing from the dereferencing syntax, not the other way around.

So if you have

Code:

int * ptr;

then ptr is a pointer-to-int and *ptr is an int, all at the same time.

IOW, they needed something in the declaration to say "this is a pointer", and using the same symbol * as dereferencing allowed the pun above, without using up another keyword or symbol.

(I seem to recall somebody smart and important saying much the same thing but with more authority -- maybe Stroustrup in his FAQ?)