C++ ^ What is it for?

Question

I'm reading a program in (.NET) C++ made by someone else, and I can't figure out what this means:

BinaryWriter^ file = gcnew BinaryWriter( File::Open( "Data.al", FileMode::OpenOrCreate ));

What DOES the ^ do in this sentence?

and what about this:

void GetEEDataRx(array<Byte> ^%EE)

What is the purpose of the ^%

"^ XOR Bitwise exclusive OR" http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/operators/ — Bit, Aug 11 '14 at 17:17

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 11 '14 at 17:21

7

This is C++/CLI.

The ^ is declaring a managed pointer (as opposed to a raw pointer using *). The BinaryWriter object is being allocated with gcnew instead of new, so it will be garbage-collected when it is not being used anymore.

The ^% is a tracking reference. It is the equivalent of the C# ref keyword.

You can read the documentation to learn more about C++/CLI, now that you know what it is.

edited Aug 11 '14 at 17:21

Raymond Chen

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answered Aug 11 '14 at 17:18

Remy Lebeau

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and what about the %? – Gabriel Matusevich Aug 11 '14 at 17:19
okok, good :). I'll accept the anwser in 7 mins – Gabriel Matusevich Aug 11 '14 at 17:22

C++ ^ What is it for?

1 Answers1