const*const - what is the purpose of this?

[Noel Grandin]

Thanks for the link, but that doesn't explain the usage.

As I read it, the FindTable declaration means that the data-structure 
pointed to is read-only, and that the pointer value itself is also 
read-only.
But making a pointer value read-only is something only useful to the 
internals of a method, and should make no difference to the API signature.

On 2012-02-23 12:23, Jesús Corrius wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 9:04 AM, Noel Grandin<noel at peralex.com>  wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I'm seeing declarations like this scattered around the SW module:
>> e.g. in sw/inc/swtable.hxx at line 301
>>
>>   static SwTable * FindTable( SwFrmFmt const*const pFmt );
>>
>> As far as I can tell from my limited C++ knowledge, this is the same as the
>> more common definition:
>>
>>   static SwTable * FindTable( const SwFrmFmt * pFmt );
>>
>> i.e. the second const serves no purpose - or am I missing something?
> You are missing something :)
>
> An interesting read:
>
> http://duramecho.com/ComputerInformation/WhyHowCppConst.html
>

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