Official names for pointer operators

Posted by FredOverflow on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by FredOverflow
Published on 2010-03-21T20:05:53Z Indexed on 2010/03/21 20:11 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 431

Filed under:
|

What are the official names for the operators * and & in the context of pointers? They seem to be frequently called dereference operator and address-of operator respectively, but unfortunately, the section on unary operators in the standard does not name them.

I really don't want to name & address-of anymore, because & returns a pointer, not an address. (A pointer is a language mechanism, while an address is an implementation detail. Addresses are untyped, while pointers aren't, except for void*.) The standard is very clear about this:

The result of the unary & operator is a pointer to its operand.

Symmetry suggests to name & reference operator which is a little unfortunate because of the collision with references in C++. The fact that & returns a pointer suggests pointer operator. Are there any official sources that would confirm these (or other) namings?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about c++

Related posts about pointers