Pass by Reference

Objective-J 2.0 now supports pass by reference using the new @ref and @deref syntax. Pass by reference allows you to store a reference to a variable in a different variable and then to pass it around. Among other things this makes it possible to send a message which returns multiple values (one as the return value, and an arbitrary number as output variables).

A common use case is with CPNumberFormatter.

- (BOOL)getObjectValue:forString:errorDescription: returns YES when it’s successful and NO when it’s not. So if the return value is a boolean, where can you find the actual object value after successful conversion?

All you have to do is to provide somewhere for it to be written to.

var nf = [CPNumberFormatter new],
    valueOut = nil,
    errorOut = @"";

if ([nf getObjectValue:@ref(valueOut) forString:@"10" errorDescription:@ref(errorOut)])
    CPLog.info(valueOut); // now valueOut == 10.

[nf setMinimum:100];
if (![nf getObjectValue:@ref(valueOut) forString:@"10" errorDescription:@ref(errorOut)])
    CPLog.info(errorOut); // now valueOut is unchanged, but errorOut == @"Value is less than the minimum allowed value".

The number formatter is returning values by writing them into the storage you provided for it: valueOut and errorOut in your local scope.

If you have programmed Objective-C, C or C++ you might think of an @ref reference as a JavaScript analog to a pointer. In C you might write:

int a;
int *aPtr = &a;
*aPtr = 5;
printf("%d", *aPtr); // prints 5

Whereas in Objective-J you would write:

var a,
    aRef = @ref(a);

@deref(aRef) = 5;
console.log(@deref(aRef)); // logs 5

Once you have a reference you can pass it around, save it, and dereference it as needed. It’s not an actual pointer though so pointer arithmetic is not possible.

The @ref feature is available today in Cappuccino master if you build from source.