c++ - Passing pointer argument by reference under C?

Question

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void
getstr(char *&retstr)
{
 char *tmp = (char *)malloc(25);
 strcpy(tmp, "hello,world");
 retstr = tmp;
}

int
main(void)
{
 char *retstr;

 getstr(retstr);
 printf("%s
", retstr);

 return 0;
}

gcc would not compile this file, but after adding #include <cstring> I could use g++ to compile this source file.

The problem is: does the C programming language support passing pointer argument by reference? If not, why?

Thanks.

Answer 1

No, C doesn't support references. It is by design. Instead of references you could use pointer to pointer in C. References are available only in C++ language.