dereference

D d

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- UK Pronunciation
- UK IPA
- /dɪˈrefrənsɪ/
- /dɪˈrefrənsɪ/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- /dɪˈrefrənsɪ/

Definitions of dereference word

noun dereference Obtain from (a pointer) the address of a data item held in another location. 1
noun Definition of dereference in Technology (programming) To access the thing to which a pointer points, i.e. to follow the pointer. E.g. in C, the declarations int i; int *p = &i; declare i as an integer and p as a pointer to integer. p is initialised to point at i ("&i" is the address of i - the inverse of "*"). The expression *p dereferences p to yield i as an lvalue, i.e. something which can appear either on the left of an assignment or anywhere an integer expression is valid. Thus *p = 17; would set i to 17. *p++ is not the same as i++ however since it is parsed as *(p++), i.e. increment p (which would be an invalid thing to do if it was pointing to a single int, as in this example) then dereference p's old value. The C operator "->" also dereferences its left hand argument which is assumed to point to a structure or union of which the right hand argument is a member. At first sight the word "dereference" might be thought to mean "to cause to stop referring" but its meaning is well established in jargon. 1
verb dereference (programming, of a memory location) To obtain the value stored therein in an execution context which interprets that value as the address of a memory location. 0
verb dereference (programming, of a pointer) to access the thing to which the pointer points. 0

See all 4 definitions of dereference

Information block about the term

Parts of speech for Dereference

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Dereference

dereference popularity

A common word. It’s meaning is known to most children of preschool age. About 85% of English native speakers know the meaning and use the word.

According to our data about 56% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

dereference usage trend in Literature

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