using '.' over '->' operator in struct

I'm building trivial doubly circular linked list and I'm curious why I cannot do something such as:

Code:

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cur = cur.next

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since 'cur' is a pointer and the member 'next' is also a pointer so that's why I'm unclear why 'cur' must be dereferenced to access the pointer member: 'next':

Code:

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cur = (*cur).next//SAME AS syntactic sugar: cur =  cur->next

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Code:

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struct doubly_cll//doubly circular linked list obj
{
    int data;
    doubly_cll* next;
    doubly_cll* back;
};

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In main, I'm manually inserting new node at front and 'tail' node's next pointer points to newnode (and head pointer points to new node of course)

Code:

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#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
    doubly_cll* head = NULL;
    // doubly_cll* tail = NULL;//NB: don't really need a tail ptr b/c  I'm only inserting new node @ front, so immediately make cur(old) head's  next node's next
    //    to pt to newNode BEFORE making head pt to new node (that way  we don't lose track of the "tail" node since no NULL indicator)
   
    doubly_cll node_1;//this is the 'tail' node
    node_1.data = 8;
    node_1.next = &node_1; node_1.back = &node_1;
    head = &node_1;
   
    doubly_cll node_2;
    node_2.data = 99;
    node_2.next = &node_1; node_2.back = &node_1;
    node_1.next = &node_2;//tail pts to new front node
    node_1.back = &node_2;
    head = &node_2;
   
    doubly_cll node_3;//new front node
    node_3.data = 1;
    node_3.next = &node_2; node_3.back = &node_1;//update new node's ptrs
    node_2.back = &node_3;//update old head's ptrs
    node_1.next = &node_3;//update tail's ptrs
    head = &node_3;
       
    //OUTPUT expected:  1  99  8
    doubly_cll* cur = head;
    do
    {
        cout << "cur node: " << (*cur).data << ", ";//<=> cur->data ('->' just syntactic sugar)
        cur = (*cur).next;//cur is a ptr, member 'next' is a ptr so why doesn't this work? a ptr cannot hold a member?
    }
    while( cur != head );//stop when we pt back to head node (no NULL so this is stop condition)
   
    return 0;
}

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It might not seem very intuitive, but you want to access a member of the pointee, so it doesn't matter what type of member it is, you still have to dereference. The pointer value does not have any members to be accessed with the dot operator.

Quote:

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why I cannot do something such as

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O_o

Once again, you've basically answered your own question but missed it because you are too close to the situation.

You can't do that because, as you say, `cur' is a pointer; the variable `cur' is not a structure; it can't then have members as a structure has members.

The variable `cur' is only a pointer to a structure. It is obvious, as from the earlier thread, that a pointer must be "dereferenced" to actually access the thing where the pointer points.

Soma