Question

In Delphi:

How do I get the address (0x2384293) a pointer points to?

var iValue := Integer;
    iptrValue := PInteger;

implementation

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  iptrValue := @iValue;
  iValue := 32342;
  //Should return the same value:
  Edit1.Text := GetAddressOf(iptrValue);
  Edit2.Text := GetAddressOf(iValue); 

So what is GetAddress in reality 🙂

Answer 1

To get the address of something, use the @ operator or the Addr function. You’ve already demonstrated correct use of that. You got the address of iValue and stored it in iptrValue.

To display an address, you can use the Format function to convert a pointer value into a string. Use the %p format string:

Edit1.Text := Format('%p -> %p -> %d', [@iptrValue, iptrValue, iptrValue^]);

That will display the address of the iptrValue variable, then the address stored in that variable, and then the value stored at that address.

The iptrValue variable declaration reserves some bytes in memory and associates a name with them. Suppose the address of the first byte is $00002468:

       iptrValue
       +----------+
$2468: |          |
       +----------+

The iValue declaration reserves another piece of memory, and it will probably be adjacent to the previous declaration’s memory. Since iptrValue is four bytes wide, the address of iValue would be $0000246C:

       iValue
       +----------+
$246c: |          |
       +----------+

The boxes I’ve drawn are empty for now because we haven’t discussed what values those variables hold. We’ve only discussed the variables’ addresses. Now to the executable code: You write @iValue and store the result in iptrValue, so you get this:

       iptrValue
       +----------+    +----------+
$2468: |    $246c |--->|          |
       +----------+    +----------+
       iValue
       +----------+
$246c: |          |
       +----------+


Next, you assign 32342 to `iValue`, so your memory looks like this:


       iptrValue
       +----------+    +----------+
$2468: |    $246c |--->|    32342 |
       +----------+    +----------+
       iValue
       +----------+
$246c: |    32342 |
       +----------+

Finally, when you display the results of the Format function from above, you would see this value:

00002468 -> 0000246C -> 32342