Pascal - Passing Pointers to Subprograms

Pointer variables may be passed as parameters in function and procedure arguments. Pointer variables can be passed on both as value and variable parameters; however, when passed as variable parameters, the subprogram might inadvertently alter the value of the pointer which will lead to strange results.

The following program illustrates passing pointer to a function −

program exPointertoFunctions;
type
   iptr = ^integer;

var
   i: integer;
   ptr: iptr;

function getNumber(p: iptr): integer;
var
   num: integer;

begin
   num:=100;
   p:= @num;
   getNumber:=p^;
   end; 

begin
   i := getNumber(ptr);
   
   writeln(' Here the pointer brings the value ', i);
end.

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Here the pointer brings the value: 100