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4.2 Pointer types

The basic types are, as the name implies, very basic. They are the foundation, most of the pointer types are merely interesting ways to store the basic types. The pointer types are array, mapping, multiset, program, object and function. They are all pointers which means that they point to something in memory. This "something" is freed when there are no more pointers to it. Assigning a variable with a value of a pointer type will not copy this "something" instead it will only generate a new reference to it. Special care sometimes has to be taken when giving one of these types as arguments to a function; the function can in fact modify the "something". If this effect is not wanted you have to explicitly copy the value. More about this will be explained later in this chapter.

4.2.1 array

4.2.2 mapping

4.2.3 multiset

4.2.4 program

4.2.5 object

4.2.6 function


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