4.1. A Definition

The concept of a pointer is one of the most important to understand thoroughly to master Windows debugging. By definition, a pointer is a memory cell or a processor register that contains the address of another memory cell as shown on Picture 4.1. It has its own address as any memory cell. Sometimes a pointer is called an indirect address (vs. direct address, the address of a memory cell). Iteratively we can define another level of indirection and introduce a pointer to a pointer as a memory cell or a processor register that contains the address of another memory cell that contains the address of another memory cell and so on.

Picture 4.1. Picture 4.1