C# allows use of pointer but it makes your programming code unsafe.
A pointer is a variable which stores reference of another variable of same data type in which the pointer is declared.
The general form of a pointer declaration is:
type *var-name;
Following are valid pointer declarations:
int *ip; /* pointer to an integer */
double *dp; /* pointer to a double */
float *fp; /* pointer to a float */
char *ch /* pointer to a character */
The following example illustrates use of pointers in C#, using the unsafe modifier:
using System;
namespace UnsafeCodeApplication
{
class Program
{
static unsafe void Main(string[] args)
{
int var = 20;
int* p = &var;
Console.WriteLine("Data is: {0} ", var);
Console.WriteLine("Address is: {0}", (int)p);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
Retrieving the Data Value Using a Pointer
By using ToString() method you can retrieve data from pointer variable. The following example demonstrates this:
using System;
namespace UnsafeCodeApplication
{
class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
unsafe
{
int var = 20;
int* p = &var;
Console.WriteLine("Data is: {0} " , var);
Console.WriteLine("Data is: {0} " , p->ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Address is: {0} " , (int)p);
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
Passing Pointers as Parameters to Methods
You can pass a pointer variable to a method as parameter. The following example illustrates this:
using System;
namespace UnsafeCodeApplication
{
class TestPointer
{
public unsafe void swap(int* p, int *q)
{
int temp = *p;
*p = *q;
*q = temp;
}
public unsafe static void Main()
{
TestPointer p = new TestPointer();
int var1 = 10;
int var2 = 20;
int* x = &var1;
int* y = &var2;
Console.WriteLine("Before Swap: var1:{0}, var2: {1}", var1, var2);
p.swap(x, y);
Console.WriteLine("After Swap: var1:{0}, var2: {1}", var1, var2);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
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