Objective-C variable… pointing to itself?

Question

I spotted this construct in some of Apple\'s example code for dealing with key-value observing. When adding an observer, you can add a context (in the form of a void* variable)

Answer 1

I think this is overly complicated and confusing. When you want to have a unique context for KVO just declare it and use a pointer to it:

static int kMyObjectPropertyObservationContext;

...

[object addObserver:self
         forKeyPath:@"myProperty"
            options:0
            context:&kMyObjectPropertyObservationContext];

Answer 2

I think that the most accurate description would be "a self-referential pointer".