| title |
description |
ms.date |
ms.topic |
helpviewer_keywords |
SAL Annotations |
A brief description of the Microsoft source-code annotation language (SAL). |
11/04/2016 |
concept-article |
__z annotation |
ref annotation |
_opt annotation |
__checkreturn annotatioin |
__deref_opt annotation |
deref_opt annotation |
__deref annotation |
__in annotation |
annotations [C++] |
z annotation |
_inout annotation |
__ref annotation |
full annotation |
_in annotation |
_ref annotation |
__out annotation |
_ecount annotation |
SAL annotations |
__opt annotation |
inout annotation |
in annotation |
_CA_SHOULD_CHECK_RETURN |
__bcount annotation |
_full annotation |
_bcount annotation |
deref annotation |
part annotation |
_out annotation |
__nz annotation |
__part annotation |
opt annotation |
__full annotation |
_nz annotation |
_z annotation |
out annotation |
__ecount annotation |
__inout annotation |
SAL annotations, _CA_SHOULD_CHECK_RETURN |
_deref_opt annotation |
_deref annotation |
nz annotation |
_part annotation |
ecount annotation |
bcount annotation |
|
If you examine the library header files, you may notice some unusual annotations, for example, _In_z_ and _Out_z_cap_(_Size). These annotations are examples of the Microsoft source-code annotation language (SAL). SAL provides a set of annotations to describe how a function uses its parameters and return type. For example, it indicates the assumptions it makes about them and the guarantees it makes on finishing. The header file <sal.h> defines the annotations.
For more information about using SAL annotations in Visual Studio, see Using SAL annotations to reduce C/C++ code defects.
C runtime (CRT) and C++ Standard Library (STL) .lib files