Thread: Pointer syntax ->

Hello, I was studying for my exam and came across with a pointer syntax I had never came across with ("this->"). I made some research about it but I didn't really understand it's meaning.
If I'm correct "return (*this);" would return the object of the class but I have no idea how "this->" is used in the context below in the class constructor.

Code:

class Message {
   friend ostream& operator<<(ostream& os, Message& message);
   private:
     time_t date; //time_t is an unsigned integer
     string content;
   public:
     Message(time_t date, string content);
     time_t getDate() const;
     string getContent() const;
};

Message::Message(time_t date, string content) 
{
   this->date = date;
   this->content = content;
}

I would have probably defined the constructor as follows:

Code:

Message::Message(time_t date, string content) 
{
   date = date;
   content = content;
}

so I don't really understand what is the difference between them.
Can anyone give me a brief explanation about this subject? Thanks in advance.