What does ^ after a type mean in c++?

I have some c++ code with function return types declared as string^ o开发者_JAVA百科r IEnumerable<String^>^, what does that mean?

edits: c#->c++/cli

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It doesn't mean anything in C#. You're looking at source code for C++/CLI, not C#.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B/CLI for a brief introduction.

The carat symbol basically means "this is a GC-tracked reference".

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It seems like managed C++, not C#. ^ means managed reference type.

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Nothing. It is not valid there in C++. It's a "managed reference" type modifier for C++/CLI, a distinct language.