C++ why double pointer for out/return function parameter?

Question

I\'m relatively new to C++ and working on a fairly large C++ project at work. I notice handfuls of functions that take double pointers as parameters for objects that the fun

Answer 1

The canonical way to return an X is to pass a pointer to X. If X is a "pointer to MyClass", the canonical way to return it is to pass a "pointer to pointer to MyClass". You can't just pass a pointer to a MyClass to the function because the caller has no idea what the value of that pointer should be.