Operator * (Value Of)
Dereferences a pointer
Syntax
`
Declare Operator * ( ByRef rhs As T Pointer ) ByRef As T
`
Usage
`
result = * rhs
or
* rhs = value
`
Parameters
`rhs`
The address to dereference.
`T`
Any standard, user-defined or procedure type.
Return Value
Returns a reference to the value stored at the address `rhs`.
Description
`Operator *` (Value of) returns a reference to the value stored at an address, and is often called the dereference operator. The operand is not modified in any way.
Any type of `Pointer` can be dereferenced except for an `Any` `Pointer`.
As a reference, the result of this operator can be used on the left-hand side of assignments.
This operator must not be used in case of null pointer because reference is undefined (inducing runtime error).
Otherwise, the user must ensure that the pointer value induces access to a valid memory. Otherwise, results are undefined.
This operator can be overloaded for user-defined types.
Example
`
'This program demonstrates the use of * to utilize the value a pointer points to.
Dim a As Integer
Dim pa As Integer Ptr
pa=@a 'Here, we use the @ operator to point our integer ptr at 'a'.
' 'a' is, in this case, a standard integer variable.
a=9 'Here we give 'a' a value of 9.
Print "The value of 'a' is";*pa 'Here, we display the value of 'a' using a pointer.
*pa = 1 'Here we use our pointer to change the value of 'a'
Print "The new value of 'a' is";a 'Here we display the new value of 'a'.
`
Output:

    The value of 'a' is 9
    The new value of 'a' is 1

Dialect Differences

- In the -lang qb dialect, this operator cannot be overloaded.

Differences from QB

- New to FreeBASIC

See also

- `Operator @ (Address Of)`
- `Operator [] (Pointer Index)`
- Pointers