small clarification regarding & operator

[qtlearner123]

Hi all,

i found the following code in one of the examples paintBackground(QPainter & painter), sorry i am new to C++ and QT. I understand you are actually passing the address of the painter object. But in "C" programming language the address is passed through "*" operator. But in some functions in QT I observed the following notation also void paintEvent(QPaintEvent * ). Are both same. am i asking stupid question? But for somebody is it possible to explain?

thanks in advance,

regards,
Satya

[FelixB]

Hi,

"QPainter& painter" is a reference.
"QPainter* painter" is a pointer.

This is indeed a bit confusing since the "operator&" reurns the adress of an object which can be assigned to a pointer. But in the declaration above, the "&" is not an operator.

Felix

[qtlearner123]

Hi,

Thank you for the reply. I have studied for call by reference in the net and i found that C does not support call by reference whereas C++ supports and hence the declaration difference when compared to C.

Thanks and regards,
Satya