Question

I am reviewing some code and I ran across some code I am unfamiliar with. After some searching I could not come up of any example of why this is done or the benefit of this declaration.

myClass const * const myPtr = myClass->getPointer();

Is this a declaration of a const pointer or something entirely different?

Answer 1

It means “myPtr is a const pointer to a const myClass“. It means that you can neither modify what the pointer is pointing at through this pointer nor can you make the pointer point somewhere else after it’s initialised (by the return value of myClass->getPointer()). So yes, you’re basically right, with the addition that it also points to a const object (as far as you know; it could really be non-const underneath).

Remember that const applies to the item to its left (or if there is no item to its left, the item to its right). The first const makes the myClass const (where you can’t modify what the pointer points at) and the second const makes the * const (where you can’t modify the pointer itself).