Changing pointer inside function?

[DrSnuggles]

Hey, probably a simple question for some of you...

I need to pass an NULL pointer to a function and have the pointer be given a value within the function. How would that be done? Can a pointer be passed as reference?

My code would look something like this:

void GetData(DataType *data)
{
data = (DataType *) FunctionThatReturnsPointer();
}

DataType *data = NULL;
GetData(data);

But this is not changing the value of the NULL pointer for me after the function exits...

[anon]

Can a pointer be passed as reference?

Yes.

void GetData(DataType*& data);

Incidentally, if the pointer is always supposed to be NULL, why not?

DataType* GetData();

[DrSnuggles]

Yes.

void GetData(DataType*& data);

Alright, that is working... great! Thanks.

Incidentally, if the pointer is always supposed to be NULL, why not?

DataType* GetData();

The reason I can't do that is because I need to pass several pointers into the function and only assign values to some of them.