Described herein is a system and method for enabling an application to pass a structure containing a pointer member to an external entity, wherein the application represents a computer program executing in a computer system, and the computer program is written in a computer programming language that does not support pointers. The application declares a variable V, a structure type having a member P, and a variable M of the structure type. The application invokes a function written in a computer programming language that supports pointers. A reference to the variable V is passed to the function. The function, when executed, obtains and returns an address of the variable V. The application sets the member P in the variable M equal to the address of the variable V. The application then passes the variable M to an external entity. In this manner, the present invention enables a structure having a pointer embedded therein to be passed to the external entity.