procedure variable
Also known as: function pointer, delegate in .Net languages
A variable that refers to a procedure or function rather than a piece of data. This allows the called code to be determined at run time (dynamic binding) rather than at compile time. The actual procedure to be invoked is assigned to the variable either during program initialization or during execution. Procedure variables were a precursor to true object-oriented programming languages (OOPLs). Early OOPLs such as C++ were built by using tables (arrays) of data structures containing procedure variables to implement the dispatch tables for objects/classes.
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