Pointer
A pointer is a value that refers to a memory location or another object, enabling indirect access to it.
Go in Action, Second Edition
A pointer type is a Go type whose values identify the memory locations of values of a specified target type.
- How it is used
- Uses pointers to share and modify values or avoid copying large structs and arrays.
- How deep it goes
- Explains typed pointers, nil, addressing, dereferencing, and construction, then applies them to function arguments without descending into memory management internals.
- Examples
- Uses an integer changed through dereferencing, struct initialization, and a large image array passed to a function.
- What you can do after
- Apply pointers in Go to modify original values and pass large arrays without copying their contents.
.NET in Action, Second Edition
A pointer is a value that represents a memory address and can be used to access or manipulate the addressed storage.
- How it is used
- Connects heap access and runtime-sized allocation to a comparison of C++ pointers and C# arrays.
- How deep it goes
- Explains pointer access through stack frames and heap allocation, then shows unsafe C# pointer use without detailing pointer representation.
- Examples
- Uses a C++ function returning a dynamic array and a C# function copying arrays with pointers.
- What you can do after
- Build it from scratch: copy a C# array using pointers within `unsafe` and `fixed` blocks.
Related concepts
- memory locationuses · A memory location is an identifiable address or storage region in computer memory where data or instructions can reside or be accessed.
- errors.Asused by · errors.As is a Go standard-library function that searches an error chain for a value assignable to a specified type and stores the result.
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