Dereference

1 definition found

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  dereference
       
           To access the thing to which a pointer points,
          i.e. to follow the pointer.  E.g. in {C}, the declarations
       
          	int i;


          	int *p = &i;
       
          declare i as an integer and p as a pointer to integer.  p is
          initialised to point at i ("&i" is the address of i - the
          inverse of "*").  The expression *p dereferences p to yield i
          as an {lvalue}, i.e. something which can appear either on the
          left of an {assignment} or anywhere an integer expression is
          valid.  Thus
       
          	*p = 17;
       
          would set i to 17.  *p++ is not the same as i++ however since
          it is parsed as *(p++), i.e. increment p (which would be an
          invalid thing to do if it was pointing to a single int, as in
          this example) then dereference p's old value.
       
          The {C} operator "->" also dereferences its left hand argument
          which is assumed to point to a {structure} or {union} of which
          the right hand argument is a {member}.
       
          At first sight the word "dereference" might be thought to mean
          "to cause to stop referring" but its meaning is well
          established in jargon.
       
          (1998-12-15)