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authorCliff Click <cliffc@acm.org>2024-08-05 16:15:27 -0700
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Chapter 13: References
Co-authored-by: Thalia Archibald <thalia@archibald.dev> Co-authored-by: Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile@majumdar.org.uk> Co-authored-by: XmiliaH <45106915+XmiliaH@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Robert Obkircher <robert.obkircher@gmail.com>
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+# Chapter 13: References
+
+In this chapter, we add references and structs.
+
+You can also read [this chapter](https://github.com/SeaOfNodes/Simple/tree/linear-chapter13) in a linear Git revision history on the [linear](https://github.com/SeaOfNodes/Simple/tree/linear) branch and [compare](https://github.com/SeaOfNodes/Simple/compare/linear-chapter12...linear-chapter13) it to the previous chapter.
+
+## References
+
+Structs can reference other structs; references can be mutually recursive.
+Any reference field can allow null or not, same as a normal variable.
+
+```java
+struct Person {
+ String name; // No string type, yet
+ int age;
+ FamilyTree tree?; // A family tree, or not
+}
+struct FamilyTree {
+ Person father?; // FamilyTree can reference Person
+ Person mother?;
+ Person []kids?;
+}
+```
+
+Normal field syntax works:
+e.g. `person.tree.father = new Person;` or
+ `person.tree.father.name = "Dad";`.
+
+Reference fields all start out null, and can be tested as such. However, a
+non-null reference field can only be stored with a non-null ref.
+
+```java
+struct N { N next; int i; }
+N n = new N;
+return n.next; // Value reports as null, despite field typed as not-null
+```
+
+And:
+
+```java
+struct N { N next; int i; }
+N n = new N;
+n.next = null; // <<-- Compile error, cannot store null into not-null field
+return n.next;
+```