Question

So I am Reflector-ing some framework 2.0 code and end up with the following deconstruction

fixed (void* voidRef3 = ((void*) &_someMember))
{
...
}

This won’t compile due to ‘The right hand side of a fixed statement assignment may not be a cast expression‘

I understand that Reflector can only approximate and generally I can see a clear path but this is a bit outside my experience.

Question: what is Reflector trying to describe to me?

Update:

Am also seeing the following

fixed (IntPtr* ptrRef3 = ((IntPtr*) &this._someMember))

Update:

So, as Mitch says, it is not a bitwise operator, but an addressOf operator.

Question is now:

fixed (IntPtr* ptrRef3 = &_someMember)

fails with an ‘Cannot implicitly convert type 'xxx*' to 'System.IntPtr*'. An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)‘ compilation error.

So I seemed to be damned if I do and damned if I dont. Any ideas?

UPDATE:

I think i have it figured. By chance I went back to the expression that was using void* and removed the casts and VS stopped complaining and since I gathered from the participants in this conversation that void* and intptr* are equivalent I simply swapped them out, resulting in this:

fixed (void* ptrRef3 = &_someMember)

and VS stopped complaining. Can someone verify that

fixed (void* ptrRef3 = &_someMember)

is equivalent to

fixed (IntPtr* ptrRef3 = &_someMember)

?

Answer 1

It is taking the address of _someMember and casting it to (void *) (i.e. a pointer address), and then setting a location to that address.

The fixed statement ‘pins’ the object, and prevents the GC from moving it around.

The ‘&’ used in that context is the ‘Address Of’ operator, not Bitwise And.

In response to updated question:

Have you tried:

fixed (void* voidRef3 = &_someMember) 
{ 
... 
}