• Traister101@lemmy.today
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    9 months ago

    It’s part of the type yet it’s also a unique identifier. That’s the whole thing with east or west const. const int * is a immutable mutable pointer that points to mutable immutable memory. int *const is a mutable immutable pointer that points to immutable memory. int const * is the same type as the first example, a immutable mutable pointer that points to mutable immutable memory.

    Same stuff applies to references which makes it easier to think of the variable owning the * or & as if you want that pointer or reference to be const it has to go after.

    Edit:I am a moron who managed to get it exactly backwards :|

      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I wrote a couple unholy lines of C++ the other day using the ternary conditional operator to select a class member function to be called with a fixed argument.

        I think my teammates were too scared to call me out on it.

    • YaBoyMax@programming.dev
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      9 months ago

      I think you’ve got it backwards. I learned to read pointer decls from right-to-left, so const int * is a (mutable) pointer to an int which is const while int *const is a const pointer to a (mutable) int.