Does the ^ symbol replace C#'s "ref" in parameter passing in C++/CLI code?

If Dog is a reference type (class in C#) then the C++/CLI equivalent is:

void MyFunction(Dog^% dog)

If Dog is a value type (struct in C#) then the C++/CLI equivalent is:

void MyFunction(Dog% dog)

As a type decorator, ^ roughly correlates to * in C++, and % roughly correlates to & in C++.

As a unary operator, you typically still need to use * in C++/CLI where you use * in C++, but you typically need to use % in C++/CLI where you use & in C++.

The ^ operator behaves similarly to a pointer in C++/CLI. The difference is that it's a garbage-collected pointer. So:

Dog ^ mydog = gcnew Dog();

is simply saying that we will new using the managed memory (gcnew) and pass the managed pointer back to mydog.

So:

void MyFunction(Dog ^ dog)

Is actually passing by address, not be reference, but they're kinda similar. If you want to pass by reference in C/C++ you do something like:

void MyFunction(Dog &dog);

in the function declaration. I assume it'll be the same for C++/CLI, but I've never tried it. I try not to use the ref's since it's not always clear that they are.

EDIT: Well, it's not the same, it's % not &, which makes sense they'd have to change that too. Stupid C++/CLI.