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iOS Objective-C Basics (Retired) Introduction to Objective-C From Structs to Objects

Posted by Antoine Guenet
Antoine Guenet
2,843 Points

Why is everything a pointer in Object-oriented programming ?

Around 6:30, Mr Turner says everything is a pointer in object-oriented programming. Why is that ?

2 Answers

agreatdaytocode
agreatdaytocode
24,757 Points
agreatdaytocode
agreatdaytocode
24,757 Points

Antoine,

In computer science, a pointer is a programming language object, whose value refers to (or "points to") another value stored elsewhere in the computer memory using its address. A pointer references a location in memory, and obtaining the value stored at that location is known as dereferencing the pointer.

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I hope that helps.

Antoine Guenet
Antoine Guenet
2,843 Points
Antoine Guenet
Antoine Guenet
2,843 Points

Thanks Aaron. I'm following the whole course on ObjectiveC Basics so I watched and understood the one on pointers. What I don't understand is why in ObjectiveC (as opposed to C) we suddenly use pointers for everything, or as Mr Turner says in the video : "everything is a pointer" (with no further explanation).

Shkodran Gerguri
Shkodran Gerguri
1,114 Points

I'd wager a guess - it's because it was the most straightforward way to implement objects on top of C.

Kelsey Jones
Kelsey Jones
911 Points

I'm guessing it has to do with handling memory when creating applications. Just a way to make running them a bitter better and easier on the developer. Also, he mentions that Obj-C scales well in comparison to C. Maybe pointers are a factor. Again, these are just ideas. I'd like to know as well, though.