Why do we need to dereference?

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#1

Hi there!
getting struggled here… The game is working fine but I just can’t understand why do we need to dereference these two :sob:

UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Location: %s, Location: %s"),
	*PlayerViewPointLocation.ToString(),
	*PlayerViewPointRotation.ToString()
);

Any explanation will be awesome!

#2

Okay, so no one else has answered, I’ll maybe offer one even though I don’t know much

I’m guessing it has to do with the fact that C++ doesn’t have strings, but instead it has arrays of Chars. Technically you using an array, which you’d use a reference for and dereference if using in this case. Maybe.

OR

It’s actually an overload operator having something to do with the TEXT format.

#3

It is the latter. FString has the *() operator overloaded to return a TCHAR * string. They probably used the dereference operator because it behaves like a (smart) dereference.

FString C++ doc

Scroll down 3/4 of the way to see the operator descriptions. Not sure why it says “…if Num…”, maybe a typo assuming it means if set.

btw - C++ does have strings std::string

2 Likes
#4

Thanks for the explanation!

What I meant was, the standard library includes ways to use strings, but from what I understand it’s actually an array of chars in the background. Which is a round about way of saying C++ doesn’t actually support strings, but libraries for C++ do.

#5

Well then it might be a case of semantics since the standard library is part of the language specification therefore C++ does support strings even if the core language did not (without the standard <string> header) though wouldn’t the null terminated char array eg. char* carray = "Hello World" still be considered a type of string (or more specifically a “c-type” string)? and I am pretty sure that is supported in the language core.

#6

I would agree, it is likely semantics on what is ‘supported’. The library works behind the scenes to make C++ support strings even though it doesn’t natively.

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