Thread: pointer stuff

Sometimes when I'm taking tutorials or looking at someone elses code, I realize that they sometimes have this

Code:

 **ptr

or

Code:

 *( ptr

... What does two pointers do, does it point to a pointer that it is itself. I keep trying to remember the definition of this statement but I never can get a good definition that I would stick into my brain...

Why do you need parenthesis as well, does that put a point FIRST, or?

thanks
jay

Well I don't know about the one with parentheses, but the first one (**ptr) is a pointer to a pointer, meaning ptr holds the address of another pointer.

Therefore, **ptr retreives the value in the pointer pointed to by ptr.

So

Code:

int x = 5;
int *p = &x;
int **pp = &p;

// prints "555"
cout << x << *p << **pp;