What does the ^ character mean when used in C++ declarations? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
What does the caret (‘^’) mean in C++/CLI?
In C++/CLR, what does a hat character ^ do?

What does the ^ character mean in C++ when applied to the data type in a variable declaration, as in:

String^ input;

or

List<String^>^ phoneNumbers;

Answer 1

Assuming a Microsoft-compiler, this is not from C++ but from Microsoft own C++ dialects called C++/CLI. It denotes a .NET-garbage collected object.