Casting to pointer reference?

[Mrtn]

Hi,

can anyone help me with understanding what is the purpose of ampersand sign
in following cast : (UNALIGNED DWORD*&) ? Below is code snipet where I
spoted this.

thanx

BOOL CWnd::ExecuteDlgInit(LPVOID lpResource)
{
BOOL bSuccess = TRUE;
if (lpResource != NULL)
{
UNALIGNED WORD* lpnRes = (WORD*)lpResource;
while (bSuccess && *lpnRes != 0)
{
WORD nIDC = *lpnRes++;
WORD nMsg = *lpnRes++;
DWORD dwLen = *((UNALIGNED DWORD*&)lpnRes)++; // *& -> ?????
//...
}
// ...
}
//...
}

 

[Bob Hairgrove]

DWORD dwLen = *((UNALIGNED DWORD*&)lpnRes)++; // *& -> ?????

I believe this is legal ... check section 5.2.10 "Reinterpret_cast",
paragraph 10 for more details.

Don't know exactly why it is used this way ... maybe to keep the
compiler from generating a copy of the pointer?