pointedTo

PointedTo is a concept used in computer science to describe the relationship between a pointer expression and the memory location it references. In formal analyses, the term denotes the target that a pointer may point to during program execution. The concept is often discussed under the broader umbrella of the points-to or pointer semantics.

In formal methods, PointedTo is defined as a binary relation between a pointer p and a heap location ℓ (or the value stored there). If p may reference ℓ, one says p pointedTo ℓ. In common analyses and notations, p |-> v is used to indicate that p points to a heap cell containing the value v. PointedTo is used to track potential targets across program paths, enabling reasoning about aliasing, dereferencing, and memory safety.

Example: consider a program where a pointer p is assigned the address of an object o. The program state includes p pointedTo o, and o contains a field x. If another pointer q also references o, q may be pointedTo the same location, illustrating aliasing between p and q.

Applications and limitations: PointedTo is central to pointer analysis, static analysis, garbage collection heuristics, and formal verification. Analyses must handle dynamic allocation, deallocation, and pointer arithmetic; results are typically conservative, describing possible targets rather than asserting exact one-to-one relationships.

Etymology and related terms: The term derives from the literal meaning of pointing to a target. Related concepts include dereference, aliasing, the points-to relation, and memory-model frameworks such as heap semantics and separation logic.