What does the ^ character mean when used in C++ declarations?

Question

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What does the caret (‘^’) mean in C++/CLI?
In C++/CLR, what does a hat character ^ do?

What does the ^ character mean in C++ when applied to the data type in a variable declaration, as in:

String^ input;

or

List<String^>^ phoneNumbers;

It means it's not C++, but a language invented by Microsoft with a confusingly similar syntax and name. — Mike Seymour, Dec 19 '12 at 13:00
See Rob Walker's post: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/202463/what-does-the-caret-mean-in-c-cli — Boundless, Dec 19 '12 at 13:04

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 19 '12 at 13:01

7

Assuming a Microsoft-compiler, this is not from C++ but from Microsoft own C++ dialects called C++/CLI. It denotes a .NET-garbage collected object.

answered Dec 19 '12 at 13:01

Sebastian Mach

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 19 '12 at 13:01

5

It's a managed pointer. Similar to *, but collected by the GC.

Oh yeah, and it only works in C++/CLI, obviously (your post was already tagged cli, but I feel the need to explicitly state this).

answered Dec 19 '12 at 13:01

Andrei Tita

2 Answers2