pointervalued
Pointer-valued is a term used in programming to describe types or values that represent memory addresses rather than direct values. A pointer-valued value stores an address; by dereferencing it, the program accesses the object located at that address. In languages that distinguish value types from reference or pointer types, pointer-valued values enable indirect access and sharing, as multiple pointers may refer to the same object.
Operations on pointer-valued values typically include assignment by copying the pointer, dereferencing to obtain or modify
In practice, pointer-valued types are used to implement dynamic data structures (linked lists, trees), to pass
- In C and C++, pointers are explicit and support pointer arithmetic; raw pointers can be null or
- In Rust, raw pointers (*const T, *mut T) are pointer-valued but unsafe to dereference; references (&T,
- In Go, pointers are values of pointer-valued types like *T, with automatic garbage collection and restrictions
Pointer-valued is sometimes contrasted with value types, where the value itself is stored and copying it duplicates