is thispointer is a part of an object

[Alexpo]

hi,

can we say "this" pointer is a part of the object in question or it is something created by compiler outside the object to store address of the object?
i think it is not the part of it. also it is not considered while calculating the size of the object. so it is a pointer synthesized by compiler which is tightly associated with the object staying outside it and not exposed to the outside objects.

correct me, if i m wrong, pls.

--regards
Ap

[Dino]

"this" is a reference to the instance of the object. "this", unlike other member variables, is not part of the object itself.

[Sebastiani]

The 'this' pointer is simply the address of the object itself. For instance, let's say you have a structure located in memory at 0x80000000, well that would be the 'this' pointer. It get's a little more complicated with multiple inheritence, since each of the base-class instances will generally contain member data that must start at a specific offset within the class, and so the base address of each inherited type will be different (eg: require a different 'this' pointer). For example:

#include <iostream>

typedef char pad[ 27 ];

struct foo
{
	pad unused;
};

struct bar
{
	pad unused;
};

struct baz
{
	pad unused;
};

struct qux : foo, bar, baz
{	};

template < typename Type >
void print( char const* name, Type const& data )
{
	std::cout << "Address of " << name << " : " 
	<< reinterpret_cast< int const* >( &data ) << std::endl;	
}

int main( void )
{
	qux object;	
	print( "foo", static_cast< foo const& >( object ) );
	print( "bar", static_cast< bar const& >( object ) );
	print( "baz", static_cast< baz const& >( object ) );
	print( "qux", object );
	return 0;
}