Functions as pointers in Objective-C
- by richman0829
This is a question from Learn Objective-C on the Mac...
Functions as pointers
What I typed in, as per the recipe, was:
NSString *boolString (BOOL yesNo) {
if (yesNo) { return (@"YES");
} else { return (@"NO");
} } // boolString
The pointer asterisk in the first line doesn't seem necessary, yet deleting it results in an error message. But what does it do? In
NSString * boolString (yesNo);
what seems to be going on is a function is defined as a pointer to an NSString. The function without the asterisk
NSLog (@"are %d and %d different? %@", 5, 5, boolString(areTheyDifferent));
returns an NSString of YES or NO. But how can it return an NSString when it's a pointer? It might return the ADDRESS of an NSString; or if dereferenced it could return the CONTENTS of that address (an NSString such as YES or NO). Yet I see no place where it is dereferenced.
