Learning as always, was going along quite nicely, until I realized I had no idea what the differences meant between these.
@class Player;
@class Map;
@interface View : NSView
{
Player* player_;
Map* currentMap_;
NSMutableArray *worldArray;
NSMutableArray *itemArray;
float cellHeight_;
}
@end
Never mind, turns out the side the star is on has no effect at all. Now I know why I was so confused.
All objective C objects are referenced by pointers, which is what the * denotes. Whether the star is on the left or the right doesn't matter to the compiler; I believe it's personal preference.
float doesn't have a * because it's a C primitive, not an Objective C object.
Player*player_;”. Whitespace makes things easier to read, and usually clearer, but is almost always not necessary to the compiler.int main(void){return!printf("%s%c%s\n","Hello",0x20,"world");} Only one whitespace character in this entire valid program. (This is, of course, a bad way to write real code.)It doesn't make a difference at all to the compiler. It's totally the preference of the developer.
The following are the same:
Player* player_;
Player *player_;
Player * player_;
There was an interesting comment I read once about the thought process of someone that types:
Player* player_;
vs that of someone that types:
Player *player_;
I can't find it now since this sort of stuff is impossible to google. The basic idea is that the developer who types Player* is thinking that player_ is a pointer to a Player object. The person who types it the other way is thinking that a Player object is contained in the dereferenced player_ variable. A subtle difference but ultimately the same thing.
One thing you might want to look out for is when creating multiple pointer variables in one line:
int *p, q; // p is int*, q is int
int* p, q; // not so obvious here, but p is int*, q is int
int *p, *q; // it's a lot more obvious with the * next to the variable
