Indirection operator * - Noob question.

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Placement of the asterisk in Objective-C

Could someone please shed some light as I am a bit confused as to the proper use of the indirection operator.

Example:

NSAutoReleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoReleasPool alloc] init];

MyAwesomeClass *awesomeClass;

So as I see them; are they just stylistic differences on declaring the object or does leaving a space between the operator and the variable name actually do something different?

THANKS for participating ...

Answer 1

No difference. Purely style.

Here are some of the ways people read them differently:

CType* myVar; // the type of myVar is "CType-Pointer"
CType *myVar; // myVar is a Pointer-to-CType
CType * myVar; // This is a CType, referenced by a Pointer.

They are all 100% equal. But people tend to develop different "mental models" about how they read and think about pointers.

Answer 2

White space does not matter for pointer declarations. The following are all equivalent:

MyAwesomeClass *awesomeClass;
MyAwesomeClass* awesomeClass;
MyAwesomeClass * awesomeClass;