what is void* in the explicit cast operator and what is use of it?

Question

I just came across below code in mscorlib IntPtr structure while pressing F12 in visual studio.

public static unsafe explicit operator void* (IntPtr value)
{
    return value.m_value;
}

I do know that we can define explicit cast operator like this but it is void* so I am confused what is this and what is use of that?

Answer 1

Void* is a void pointer. It is a construct that is often used in C++. Most of the times it is used when you want to use a pointer for either a multiple other data types or if you are not sure what datatype you will use the pointer for.

In essence you can see it as sort of a generic as it can be cast to any other pointer type and vice versa. It is usually used when dealing with unmanaged code and is a C++ construct. In managed code it normally finds no usage.