pTAL Reference Manual (H06.03+)

Pointers
HP pTAL Reference Manual—523746-005
10-17
Initializing Structure Pointers
STRING
is the STRING attribute.
INT
is the INT attribute, as INT, INT(32), or FIXED.
.
.EXT
.SG
.SGX
are indirection symbols (see Table 2-7 on page 2-7).
identifier
is the identifier of the pointer.
referral
is the identifier of a previously-declared structure, structure template, or structure
pointer.
Specify referral only for pointers to structures.
initialization
is an expression representing a memory address. For more information about
operations on addresses, see Section 5, Expressions.
Initializing Structure Pointers
The addressing mode and data type of the simple pointer determines the kind of
address the pointer can contain.
For information about data types and addresses, see Table 10-1
on page 10-6 and
Table 10-2
on page 10-7.
Furthermore, the kind of expression you can specify for the address depends on the
level at which you declare the pointer:
•
Use a constant expression at the global level. See also Initializing Simple Pointers
on page 10-14.
•
At the local or sublocal level, you can use any arithmetic expression.
If the expression is the address of a structure with an index, the structure pointer points
to a particular occurrence of the structure. If the expression is the address of an array,
with or without an index, you impose the structure on top of the array.
Global structure pointers receive their initial values when you compile the source code.
Local and sublocal structure pointers receive their initial values each time the
procedure or subprocedure is activated.