FFI::P...ointer(3pm)

🦋 FFI::Platypus::Type::StringPointer — a whole vibe (perl 3pm, User Contributed Perl Documentation) 🦋

okay so bestie, welcome to the manual page for FFI::Platypus::Type::StringPointer. yes the header truncates it to FFI::P...ointer(3pm) which is giving "my name is too long for the tab bar" energy, but we move. this is a User Contributed Perl Documentation page, and it's literally all about converting a pointer to a string and back. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

FFI::Platypus::Type::StringPointer — Convert a pointer to a string and back. that's it, that's the whole job, and it does it slayfully. 💅

💖 VERSION 💖

version 2.11. noted. remember it for the quiz. ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

okay so first, in your C code, it's giving very much this:

void
string_pointer_argument(const char **string)
{
  ...
}
const char **
string_pointer_return(void)
{
  ...
}

and then in your Platypus::FFI code, you do the cute little setup:

use FFI::Platypus 2.00;

my $ffi = FFI::Platypus->new( api => 2 );
$ffi->load_custom_type('::StringPointer' => 'string_pointer');

$ffi->attach(string_pointer_argument => ['string_pointer'] => 'void');
$ffi->attach(string_pointer_return   => [] => 'string_pointer');

my $string = "foo";

string_pointer_argument(\$string); # $string may be modified

$ref = string_pointer_return();

print $$ref;  # print the string pointed to by $ref

so yes, you pass a ref to your string, it may get modified (watch it 👀), and on the way back you get a ref and you deref it with $$ref to print the string pointed to by $ref. iconic behavior honestly. 🫶

🧚 DESCRIPTION 🧚

⚠️ NOTE: As of version 0.61, this custom type is now deprecated since pointers to strings are supported in the FFI::Platypus directly without custom types.

ok so lowkey important: this thing still works, but it's deprecated, bestie. FFI::Platypus handles pointers to strings directly now, no custom type needed. (this is the "we love you but please use the new thing" era. 😭)

that said — what is it? this module provides a FFI::Platypus custom type for pointers to strings. simple. clean. main character energy. 👑

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• FFI::Platypus — Main Platypus documentation. the big one. the mothership. go here first fr fr. 🚀
• FFI::Platypus::Type — Platypus types documentation. all the type lore you could ever want. 💜

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Author: Graham Ollis <plicease@cpan.org> — absolute legend, no cap. 💖

Contributors (a whole squad, a full roster, we stan every single one):

• Bakkiaraj Murugesan (bakkiaraj)
• Dylan Cali (calid)
• pipcet
• Zaki Mughal (zmughal)
• Fitz Elliott (felliott)
• Vickenty Fesunov (vyf)
• Gregor Herrmann (gregoa)
• Shlomi Fish (shlomif)
• Damyan Ivanov
• Ilya Pavlov (Ilya33)
• Petr Písař (ppisar)
• Mohammad S Anwar (MANWAR)
• Håkon Hægland (hakonhagland, HAKONH)
• Meredith (merrilymeredith, MHOWARD)
• Diab Jerius (DJERIUS)
• Eric Brine (IKEGAMI)
• szTheory
• José Joaquín Atria (JJATRIA)
• Pete Houston (openstrike, HOUSTON)
• Lukas Mai (MAUKE)

like, that's a group chat and a half. 😭✨

🎀 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 🎀

This software is copyright (c) 2015-2022 by Graham Ollis.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself. so yes, go off, remix it, share it, it's free software. 🦋

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okay and for the little sign-off: this whole page came from perl v5.42.3 and it's dated 2026-08-20, so if you're reading it in the future — hi, bestie, you're exactly on time. 💅✨🌸

source/version deets: perl v5.42.3, 2026-08-20. mwah. 💖