The dereferencing operator

The '*' character is used as the dereferencing operator. It allows access to a piece of data that is addressed via a pointer. The pointer is prefixed with '*' which can also be combined with the COBOL qualification (IN, OF) and the COBOL subscription.

The dereferencing operator can only be used on typed pointers.

Examples:

1. /%DISPLAY *POINTER

2. /%DISPLAY FIELD IN *POINTER

Example 1: AID outputs the data addressed via POINTER

Example 2: AID outputs the FIELD element that must lie in the data structure addressed via POINTER. This example also shows that '*' binds stronger than qualification with IN/OF.