What does the bitwise operator & do in this example?

Question

This example is from MQL4 but that doesn't really matter:

int OnCalculate( const int rates_total, const int prev_calculated, const datetime &time[], const double &open[], const double &high[], const double &low[], const double &close[], const long &tick_volume[], const long &volume[], const int &spread[] )

What does matter is that I don't understand what the bitwise operator & is telling me here.

I know what happens if you have 2 variables and use it var1 && var2 but in this situation with an array, could someone help me out here?

It's not bitwise and, it's the address-of operator

Christian
– Christian

2014-12-07 21:28:38 +00:00
Commented Dec 7, 2014 at 21:28 — Christian
– Christian, Commented Dec 7, 2014 at 21:28

Christian · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-07 21:48:45Z

1

The &in the argument indicates pass-by reference and not bitwise and. Passing by reference as opposed to pass-by value means that the argument value isn't copied, instead it's the address to the data structure that is copied and passed in to the function.

Edit: see @Sneftel's comment below about pass-by reference

edited Dec 7, 2014 at 21:48

answered Dec 7, 2014 at 21:33

Christian

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2 Comments

Sneftel Over a year ago

Nitpick: The & does not technically indicate pass-by-reference (there's no such thing in the language), but that the variable being passed is a reference. The difference can be seen in the fact that the variable type inside the function is treated as a reference type, not as a non-reference type.

Christian Over a year ago

@Sneftel Good catch, I'll edit the answer and point to your comment.

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