Noob Syntax question

[moneitor]

Hi there,

I am learning C++ and just starting going through the HDK.

I saw this line and I can't understand what (OP_Network *) inside parenthesis is doing, I think I understand pointers and dereferencing enough, but that syntax I never saw before.

 

Hope you don't mind the simple question.

Thanks.
 

parent = (OP_Network *)OPgetDirector()->findNode("/obj");

 

[Stalkerx777]

This is called casting in C/C++ more specifically a static upcast. This form is an old C style casing, C++ also adds static_cast syntax which does the same.

parent = static_cast<OP_Network*>(OPgetDirector()->findNode("/obj"));

Static means it's a compile time procedure and upcast means you get a pointer to the the parent base class which is higher in class hierarchy (therefore upcast). This is very common in C++.

[moneitor]

Hey Alex, thanks very much for your detailed answer, really helped me a lot.