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# MTLAttributeDescriptor

A descriptor of an argument’s format and where its data is in memory.

```
class MTLAttributeDescriptor
```

## Overview

Attribute descriptors are part of an [`MTLVertexDescriptor`](/documentation/Metal/MTLVertexDescriptor) or [`MTLStageInputOutputDescriptor`](/documentation/Metal/MTLStageInputOutputDescriptor) instance to provide layout information about a function’s arguments. Each descriptor is for a single argument, containing information about the attached data, offset and stride, and data type.

## Topics

### Defining attribute location

[`bufferIndex`](/documentation/Metal/MTLAttributeDescriptor/bufferIndex)

The index in the buffer argument table for the buffer that contains the data for this attribute.

[`offset`](/documentation/Metal/MTLAttributeDescriptor/offset)

The offset, in bytes, from the start of the buffer that contains the attribute data to the start of the data itself.

[`format`](/documentation/Metal/MTLAttributeDescriptor/format)

The format of the attribute’s data.

[`MTLAttributeFormat`](/documentation/Metal/MTLAttributeFormat)

The data format options for acceleration structures.


---

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