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Software Engineering vocabulary · Programming Concepts

Pointer

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In software engineering, pointer means: A value that refers to a memory location, allowing code to access an object or data stored at that location.

In Turkish: işaretçi

How it is used

Used in systems programming and foreign-function interfaces. Developers discuss pointer ownership, lifetime and whether a pointer may be null.

Example sentences

  1. Check whether the pointer is null before reading the buffer.

  2. This pointer becomes invalid when the owning object is destroyed.

Common collocations

  • null pointer
  • dereference a pointer
  • pointer arithmetic
  • referenceA way for code to refer to an existing value or object without necessarily making an independent copy of it.
  • NULLA special marker meaning that a value is missing or unknown. It is not the same as zero or an empty string.
  • memory leakA bug where a program keeps memory it no longer needs, so its memory use grows over time until it slows down or crashes.

More terms: Programming Concepts

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