Bounded pointer

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A bounded pointer is a fundamental programming language datatype, much as the pointer. A bounded pointer is a pointer that is augmented with two additional pointers. These two additional pointers hold the upper and lower bound of the object to which the bounded pointer is seated.

The pointers to the upped and lower bound of the objects makes is possible for the compiler to generate code that test if the pointer's value lies within the bounds prior to dereferencing the pointer. If the bounds are violated the program generates a machine exception. This is especially useful for data constructs such as arrays in C.