What does -> mean?

[Wynd]

I was looking at some code and I saw this: ->. I've never seen it before. What does it mean?

[parksie]

It's the pointer-to-member operator

struct mystruct {
    int x;
    char y;
    long z;
};

void somecode() {
    mystruct thingie;
    mystruct *ptr = &thingie;

    int num;

    num = ptr->x;
    num = (*ptr).x;
    num = thingie.x;
}

The last three accesses all go to the same memory location.

[Wynd]

Cool, thanks.

[Dillinger4]

Hey parksie. I havent coded in C++ in ages. A couple of questions.....

1.) Is the -> operator called the indirect member access operator?
2.) Is what you are doing with the -> called dereferencing?
3.)And what is the use of & with "&thingie;"?

just curiouus.........

Us Java programmers forget this stuff

[parksie]

1. Possibly - the name works
2. Yes
3. &var takes the address of var