Why do we have to put an asterisk on method parameter types in Objective-C?

I'm starting out Objec开发者_如何学Gotive-C and I was wondering, why do we have to put asterisks in the method parameter type?

e.g.

- (void)myMethodThatTakesAString:(NSString*)string;

Thanks in advance!

The asterisk means that the parameter is a pointer to an NSString. You can't pass an NSString to a method, but rather you pass a pointer to it.

Although you might get away with simply using pointers when you have objects and not really understanding them, it's probably a good idea to prioritize learning about pointers.

Because that is what you are passing- a pointer - a memory location or reference to NSString.

The notation for pointer, the * comes from C.