Object Pascal (Delphi, Free Pascal) allows this. You can use a var (variable) parameter to pass any type by reference to a function/procedure/method. This is

Object Pascal (Delphi, Free Pascal) allows this. You can use a var (variable) parameter to pass any type by reference to a function/procedure/method. This is used quite a bit in the Win32 API interface units in the run-time library because it simplifies the usage of the API by removing the requirement for double indirection when dealing with pointer parameters that need to be updated by the callee, as well as pointers in general for other type/structure parameters that need to be updated by the callee. As the caller, instead of passing a pointer to a structure as a parameter, you simply pass the structure. There are also out parameters that work similarly, but are, obviously, output-only. In general, you can use pointers in Object Pascal, but the language offers a lot of options for avoiding them, if you want to, and you get type-checked references in the process. Records (structs) are stack-based and pass-by-value, by default, and class references/class instances (instances are always heap-allocated) are pass-by-reference, by default. So, for the majority of applications, you can use parameters in a myriad number of ways in order to improve performance or provide the proper calling semantics, without any of the hassle of address-of or de-referencing operators.