Thread: help deciphering code

Originally Posted by tlovaj

i guess my question would be: what does "->" do?

If you have a pointer to a structure, it is a way to access the members of the structure without having to dereference the pointer using the * dereference operator.

Code:

struct foo
{
    int a;
    double b;
};

int main()
{
    struct foo fooObject;
    struct foo *pointerToFooObject = &fooObject;

    /* Immediate access */
    fooObject.b = 7.56;
    /* Access with dereference. */
    (*pointerToFooObject).a = 5;
    /* The shorthand operator -> in action */
    pointerToFooObject->a = 12;  /* Now fooObject.a is 12 */

    return 0;
}