Passing a pointer that is part of an object (Cocoa)

OK, I have a custom object (an NSManagedObject subclass, if it matters) and I want to pass a pointer to one of its iVars to a function that I've set up to modify such values. With a normal pointer you'd just prefix it with an ampersand (&) as in the classic NSError &error example, but that can't be done with dot notation. I can't just pass &object.iVar as I'd hoped. Can anyone suggest a simple and elegant way to obtain the pointer of iVar so that I can pass it? I am loath to pass the entire object for reasons of code structure and neatness.

-Ash开发者_Go百科

Argh, as is almost always the case, I ask a question after an hour of frustrating puzzling then ten minutes later answer it myself. I don't know, maybe asking questions is some kind of therapeutic trigger for answers... shame this isn't a psychology website.

Anyway, my solution was to add a new 'pseudo-getter' method to the object I'm trying to access the pointer from that looks a bit like this:

- (Pointer **)getIVarPointer
{
    return &iVar;
}

It's a bit cludgy, but since I only have that one iVar whose pointer I need to obtain it's not too bad. On ther other hand if there is a simpler, more 'official' way of doing this, I'd love to know it!