Rust Raw Pointers Chain-dereferencing
Example
Just like in C, Rust raw pointers can point to other raw pointers (which in turn may point to further raw pointers).
// Take a regular string slice
let planet: &str = "Earth";
// Create a constant pointer pointing to our string slice
let planet_ptr: *const &str = &planet as *const &str;
// Create a constant pointer pointing to the pointer
let planet_ptr_ptr: *const *const &str = &planet_ptr as *const *const &str;
// This can go on...
let planet_ptr_ptr_ptr = &planet_ptr_ptr as *const *const *const &str;
unsafe {
// Direct usage
println!("The name of our planet is: {}", planet);
// Single dereference
println!("The name of our planet is: {}", *planet_ptr);
// Double dereference
println!("The name of our planet is: {}", **planet_ptr_ptr);
// Triple dereference
println!("The name of our planet is: {}", ***planet_ptr_ptr_ptr);
}
This will output: The name of our planet is: Earth four times.
