What does the caret (‘^’) mean in C++/CLI?

Question

I just came across this code and a few Google searches turn up no explanation of this mysterious (to me) syntax.

Hashtable^ tempHash = gcnew Hashtable(iterators_);

IDictionaryEnumerator^ enumerator = tempHash->GetEnumerator();

What the heck does the caret mean? (The gcnew is also new to me, and I asked about that here.)

Answer 1

This is C++/CLI and the caret is the managed equivalent of a * (pointer) which in C++/CLI terminology is called a 'handle' to a 'reference type' (since you can still have unmanaged pointers).

(Thanks to Aardvark for pointing out the better terminology.)