Pointer To Functions In COM Confusing

Hi I am not one for using virtual inheritance or pointers to functions if I can help it, but I am trying to start to learn the basics of direct x and it was recommended i knew a bit about COM first. I was very happy with it until I got to this function which confused me.

Code:

---

HRESULT __stdcall CCOM_OBJECT::QueryInterface(const IID &iid, void **iface)
{
        // this function basically casts the this pointer or the iunknown
        // pointer to the interface requested, notice the comparison with
        // the GUIDs generated and defined in the beginning of the progra,

        // requestiong the IUNKNOWN base interface
        if (iid == IID_IUnknown)
        {
                cout << "Requesting IUnknown interface" << endl;
                *iface = (IX*)this;

        }

        if (iid == IID_IX)
        {
                cout << "Requestiong IX interface" << endl;
                *iface = (IX*)this;
        }
        else
        {
                if (iid == IID_IY)
                {
                        cout << "Requestion IY interface" << endl;
                        *iface = (IY*)this;
                }
                else
                {
                        cout << "Requesting Unknown interface!" << endl;
                        *iface = NULL;
                        return(E_NOINTERFACE);
                } // end else
        }
        // if everthing went well cast pointer to IUNKNOWN and call addref()
        ((IUnknown *)(*iface))->AddRef();

        return (S_OK);

}

---

Now my problem is I have no idea what parameter this is
void **iface
at first i thought it was a pointer to a function but that cant be because it gets set to *iface = (IY*)this; which by its nature isn't a function so im completely confused. Even by the line that calls the function which is
punknown->QueryInterface(IID_IY, (void**)&piy);

Somebody please help

It's actually an interface cast to void. Every COM interface inherits from an interface called IUnknown. This interface has 3 functions that every COM object must implement. 2 of them control reference counting but the third (QueryInterface) allows you to query 1 interface of an object for another.

For instance; Say I had an object called CGovtCheez. This object might expose an interface called IActLikeAMod and another called IAmAProgrammer...I can have access to IActLikeAMod, but I can also call IActLikeAMod::QueryInterface to give me access to the IAmAProgrammer interface which in turn exposes a load of new methods that I did have access to before

As the functions exposed by IUnknown are generic and apply to all COM objects, the pointer needs to be cast to void to allow it to be passed back (otherwise you would need an overloaded QueryInterface for all Interfaces exposed...this would be hell)

So should QueryInterface(const IID &iid, void **iface)
really have the void * in brackets so its
QueryInterface(const IID &iid, (void*)*iface)
like a standard c type cast?

It works with void**. All that means is that you are passing the address of the pointer (a pointer to a pointer).

It's not the best way to do things from a C++ point of view, but that's the way it's done in COM and as COM covers more than one laguage (Visual Basic, scripting languages, Java) it cant really be expected to adhere to C++ all then way

Oh okay thanks mate I think I get it many thanks