Can someone explain the "->" pointer?

Hi, I see this type of pointer alot, and it's annoying me..I can't figure it out. I've read about it, but they only touched upon the subject. Yes, i know how classes and regular pointers work, so don't hold back if it relates to them. I'm still kinda new, obviously, so I'd prefer it'd be explained, but a link is better than nothing -_-.

The -> operator is relevant to structures, classes, and unions only. When you create a regular instance of a struct for example, you would do this:

Code:

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// To create
T var;

// To access
var.item;

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The -> operator was added to simply the same type of access on a pointer:

Code:

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// To create
T *var = new T;

// To access
(*var).item;

// Alternate access for simplicity
// It is equivalent to (*var).item
var->item;

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-Prelude

simply a convenience :)

simply a convenience? I don't see how. It's pretty fundamental. otherwise you have no way of accessing members through a pointer. Aside from maybe dereferencing. ewwww....

(*ptr).member; //yuk

Quote:

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Originally posted by FillYourBrain
otherwise you have no way of accessing members through a pointer.

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Like you said...

Code:

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(*ptr).member

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wasn't really arguing there.

Anyway, what you're saying is that "->" was only added to the language to hide dereferencing? that's kinda cool I guess. In Java they have only the dot operator and all "references" are used that way. So they actually hide which things are pointers as well as the dereferencing. Pretty freaky if you ask me.

Java ... scary, scary stuff

Well you overload -> so maybe c++ is more "freaky" than java.

Quote:

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Originally posted by FillYourBrain
simply a convenience? I don't see how. It's pretty fundamental. otherwise you have no way of accessing members through a pointer. Aside from maybe dereferencing. ewwww....

(*ptr).member; //yuk

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but with -> you are derefrencing, just using a different symbol

that was explained already