Tech Note: Pointers Revisited

PRODUCT: 4D | VERSION: 11.3 | PLATFORM: Mac & Win

Published On: April 2, 2009

This technical note describes many aspects of pointers in detail. The main purpose of this tech note is to introduce the concept of pointers to those who are unfamiliar with them.

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Commented by Charlie Vass on May 28, 2009 at 11:04 AM

For developers coming to 4D from such languages such as C and C++ the biggerst difference in Pointers is that you cannot perform "pointer arithmatic" with 4D pointers. Whereas in languages suchas C and C++ you can do a MyPointer++ or MyPointer-- to navigate memory, the same capability does not exist in 4D.

Commented by Atanas Atanassov on April 6, 2009 at 10:33 AM

This Tech Note is very important not only for new programmers but also for programmers with different programming background. Pointers mechanism in 4D is the same as the other programming languages but still there are some differences like the syntax and their use with strings and arrays. Also, pointers concept for Tables and Fields can be new for non-database programmers.