What does this ( -> ) do? (RESOLVED)

I saw the following code and am wondering what the following is happening when you have ->?

PHP Code:

---

function infoBoxContents($contents) { 
global $css_class; 
$this->table_cellpadding = '3'; 
$this->table_parameters = 'class="'.$css_class.'"'; 
$info_box_contents = array(); 
...... 


---

Thanks in advance.

kind of similar to the . in VB for method and property assignments

VB it is this

frm1.Caption
txt1.Text

PHP it is this

frm1->Caption
txt1->Text

Thanks. Makes a lot of sense.