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What is the difference between the dot (.) operator and -> in C++?
What is the arrow operator (->) synonym for in C++?
The header says it all.
What does -> mean in C++?
It's to access a member function or member variable of an object through a pointer, as opposed to a regular variable or reference.
For example: with a regular variable or reference, you use the . operator to access member functions or member variables.
std::string s = "abc";
std::cout << s.length() << std::endl;
But if you're working with a pointer, you need to use the -> operator:
std::string* s = new std::string("abc");
std::cout << s->length() << std::endl;
It can also be overloaded to perform a specific function for a certain object type. Smart pointers like shared_ptr and unique_ptr, as well as STL container iterators, overload this operator to mimic native pointer semantics.
For example:
std::map<int, int>::iterator it = mymap.begin(), end = mymap.end();
for (; it != end; ++it)
std::cout << it->first << std::endl;
a->b means (*a).b.
If a is a pointer, a->b is the member b of which a points to.
a can also be a pointer like object (like a vector<bool>'s stub) override the operators.
(if you don't know what a pointer is, you have another question)
Access operator applicable to (a) all pointer types, (b) all types which explicitely overload this operator
Introducer for the return type of a local lambda expression:
std::vector<MyType> seq;
// fill with instances...
std::sort(seq.begin(), seq.end(),
[] (const MyType& a, const MyType& b) -> bool {
return a.Content < b.Content;
});
introducing a trailing return type of a function in combination of the re-invented auto:
struct MyType {
// declares a member function returning std::string
auto foo(int) -> std::string;
};
x->y can mean 2 things. If x is a pointer, then it means member y of object pointed to by x.
If x is an object with operator->() overloaded, then it means x.operator->().
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operators_in_C_and_C%2B%2B#Member_and_pointer_operators
a -> b is member b of object pointed to by a
The -> operator, which is applied exclusively to pointers, is needed to obtain the specified field or method of the object referenced by the pointer. (this applies also to structs just for their fields)
If you have a variable ptr declared as a pointer you can think of it as (*ptr).field.
A side node that I add just to make pedantic people happy: AS ALMOST EVERY OPERATOR you can define a different semantic of the operator by overloading it for your classes.
member b of object pointed to by a
a->b
Related
I'm learning C++ and pointers and I thought I understood pointers until I saw this.
On one side the asterix(*) operator is dereferecing, which means it returns the value in the address the value is pointing to, and that the ampersand (&) operator is the opposite, and returns the address of where the value is stored in memory.
Reading now about assignment overloading, it says "we return *this because we want to return a reference to the object". Though from what I read *this actually returns the value of this, and actually &this logically should be returned if we want to return a reference to the object.
How does this add up? I guess I'm missing something here because I didn't find this question asked elsewhere, but the explanation seems like the complete opposite of what should be, regarding the logic of * to dereference, & get a reference.
For example here:
struct A {
A& operator=(const A&) {
cout << "A::operator=(const A&)" << endl;
return *this;
}
};
this is a pointer that keeps the address of the current object. So dereferencing the pointer like *this you will get the lvalue of the current object itself. And the return type of the copy assignment operator of the presented class is A&. So returning the expression *this you are returning a reference to the current object.
According to the C++ 17 Standard (8.1.2 This)
1 The keyword this names a pointer to the object for which a
non-static member function (12.2.2.1) is invoked or a non-static data
member’s initializer (12.2) is evaluated.
Consider the following code snippet as an simplified example.
int x = 10;
int *this_x = &x;
Now to return a reference to the object you need to use the expression *this_x as for example
std::cout << *this_x << '\n';
& has multiple meanings depending on the context. In C and used alone, I can either be a bitwise AND operator or the address of something referenced by a symbol.
In C++, after a type name, it also means that what follows is a reference to an object of this type.
This means that is you enter :
int a = 0;
int & b = a;
… b will become de facto an alias of a.
In your example, operator= is made to return an object of type A (not a pointer onto it). This will be seen this way by uppers functions, but what will actually be returned is an existing object, more specifically the instance of the class of which this member function has been called.
Yes, *this is (the value of?) the current object. But the pointer to the current object is this, not &this.
&this, if it was legal, would be a pointer-to-pointer to the current object. But it's illegal, since this (the pointer itself) is a temporary object, and you can't take addresses of those with &.
It would make more sense to ask why we don't do return this;.
The answer is: forming a pointer requires &, but forming a reference doesn't. Compare:
int x = 42;
int *ptr = &x;
int &ref = x;
So, similarly:
int *f1() return {return &x;}
int &f1() return {return x;}
A simple mnemonic you can use is that the * and & operators match the type syntax of the thing you're converting from, not the thing you're converting to:
* converts a foo* to a foo&
& converts a foo& to a foo*
In expressions, there's no meaningful difference between foo and foo&, so I could have said that * converts foo* to foo, but the version above is easier to remember.
C++ inherited its type syntax from C, and C type syntax named types after the expression syntax for using them, not the syntax for creating them. Arrays are written foo x[...] because you use them by accessing an element, and pointers are written foo *x because you use them by dereferencing them. Pointers to arrays are written foo (*x)[...] because you use them by dereferencing them and then accessing an element, while arrays of pointers are written foo *x[...] because you use them by accessing an element and then dereferencing it. People don't like the syntax, but it's consistent.
References were added later, and break the consistency, because there isn't any syntax for using a reference that differs from using the referenced object "directly". As a result, you shouldn't try to make sense of the type syntax for references. It just is.
The reason this is a pointer is also purely historical: this was added to C++ before references were. But since it is a pointer, and you need a reference, you have to use * to get rid of the *.
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-> usage in smart pointers
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Closed 9 years ago.
smart pointers like shared_ptr can be used like ordinary pointers with * and -> operator.
The books say that -> operator returns the pointer that shared_ptr stores. So you can use it to access the object this pointer points to. But I am confused here. Look at the code below.
class A
{
public:
A(int v = 20){val = v;}
int val;
}
A* p1 = new A;
std::cout<<p1->val; //This is common sense
boost::shared_ptr<A> p2(new A);
std::cout<<p2->val; //This is right
//My question is that p2-> returns the pointers of the object, then maybe another
//-> should be used?
//like (p2->)->val?
It's magic. Well, more like a special case. The standard says that
13.5.6 Class member access [over.ref]
1 operator-> shall be a non-static member function taking no parameters. It implements the class member access syntax that uses ->.
postfix-expression -> templateopt id-expression
postfix-expression -> pseudo-destructor-name
An expression x->mis interpreted as (x.operator->())->m for a class object x of type T if T::operator->()
exists and if the operator is selected as the best match function by the overload resolution mechanism (13.3).
That is, operator-> is called again on the result of the overloaded operator. And if that one is overloaded too, it goes on recursively until a raw pointer is the result and the built-in operator-> is called.
That doesn't mean the result can't be any arbitrary type - it can be, but then you can only call it with the function call syntax:
struct X {
int operator->() { return 42; }
};
int main()
{
X x;
x.operator->(); // this is OK
}
Fortunately, designers of C++ realized this, and changed the semantics of the overloaded infix -> operator to mean that the pointer returned by your operator is plugged in on the left-hand side of the -> operator, and then the member is accessed as usual.
If you were to invoke the -> operator explicitly, you would need to insert an additional ->, though:
std::cout << p1.operator->()->val;
Demo on ideone.
The return value of operator -> is not the same as what p2->val returns. The return value of operator -> is a pointer that will be used to access the val member, so p2->val works as expected.
Here is the code which basically implementing the = assignment for a class named CMyString, and the code is right.
CMyString& CMyString::operator =(const CMyString &str) {
if(this == &str)
return *this;
delete []m_pData;
m_pData = NULL;
m_pData = new char[strlen(str.m_pData) + 1];
strcpy(m_pData, str.m_pData);
return *this;
}
The instance is passed by reference, and the first 'if' is checking whether the instance passed in is itself or not. My question is: why does it use &str to compare, doesn't str already contain the address of the instance? Could any one explain how this line works?
Also, I just want to make sure that this contains the address of the object: Is this correct?
isn't str already contains the address of the instance
No. A reference is the object itself. It's not a pointer to the object.
(I. e., in the declaration of the function, &str stands for "reference to str" and not "address of str" - what you're talking about would be right if the function was declared like this:
CMyString& CMyString::operator =(const CMyString *str);
but it isn't.)
Address-of Operator and Reference Operator are different.
The & is used in C++ as a reference declarator in addition to being the address-of operator. The meanings are not identical.
int target;
int &rTarg = target; // rTarg is a reference to an integer.
// The reference is initialized to refer to target.
void f(int*& p); // p is a reference to a pointer
If you take the address of a reference, it returns the address of its target. Using the previous declarations, &rTarg is the same memory address as &target.
str passed by to the assignment operator is passed by reference, so it contains the actual object, not its address. A this is a pointer to the class a method is being called on, so if one wants to compare, whether passed object is the same object itself, he has to get the address of str in order to compare.
Note, that & behaves differently, depending on where it is used. If in statement, it means getting an address to the object it is applied to. On the other hand, if it is used in a declaration, it means, that the declared object is a reference.
Consider the following example:
int i = 42;
int & refToI = i; // A reference to i
refToI = 99;
std::cout << i; // Will print 99
int j = 42;
int * pJ = &j; // A pointer to j
*pJ = 99;
std::cout << j; // Will print 99
this is a pointer to the instance, so yes, it contains the address.
The whole point of verifying, if the passed object is this or not is to avoid unnecessary (or, possibly destructive) assignment to self.
While indeed a variable reference - denoted by the symbol & after the type name - underlying implementation is usually a pointer, the C++ standard seemingly does not specify it.
In its usage anyway, at the syntax level, a reference is used like a non referenced value of the same type, ie. more strictly speaking :
If the type of the variable is T &, then it shall be used as if it were of type T.
If you must write str.someMethod() and not str->someMethod() (without any overloading of the arrow operator), then you must use & to obtain the address of the value. In other words, a reference acts more or less like an alias of a variable, not like a pointer.
For more information about references and pointers, see these questions:
What's the meaning of * and & when applied to variable names?
What are the differences between a pointer variable and a reference variable in C++?
Why 'this' is a pointer and not a reference?
This question already has answers here:
Closed 12 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Overloading operator ->
Hi,
I've seen that operator->() is chained (re-applied) after it is evaluated, for example:
struct Bar
{
Bar() : m_str("Hello world!") {}
const string* operator->() const { return &m_str; }
string m_str;
};
struct Foo
{
const Bar& operator->() const { return m_bar; }
Bar m_bar;
};
int main()
{
Foo f;
cout << f->c_str() << endl;
return 0;
}
works pretty fine, which requires three operator->() to be evaluated - Foo::operator->(), Bar::operator->() and regular pointer resolution.
But it wont work with pointers in the middle - if Foo::operator->() returns pointer to Bar instead of reference, it wont compile. Same happens with auto_ptr<auto_ptr<string>> for example.
Is it specific to non-overloaded operator->() so it is only applied once and does not cause chaining?
Is it possible to make code below works without using (*ptr2)-> ...?
int main()
{
string s = "Hello world";
auto_ptr<string> ptr1(&s);
auto_ptr<auto_ptr<string> > ptr2(&ptr1);
cout << ptr1->c_str() << endl; // fine
cout << ptr2->c_str() << endl; // breaks compilation
}
Thanks!
C++98 standard §13.5.6/1 "Class member access":
An expression x->m is interpreted as (x.operator->())->m for a class object x of type T if T::operator-> exists and if the operator is selected at the best match function by the overload resolution mechanism (13.3).
What this means in practice is that when x is a pointer, you don’t get chaining; you then just get the built-in operator-> (i.e. x->m with x a pointer translates to (*x).m).
But when x is an object of class type T, then you can get the chaining effect. Because then the interpretation as (x.operator->())->m can be that (x.operator->()) itself is an object of some class, say class U. Whence the second -> can be resolved as U::operator->, and so on, if the result of that again is a class type object…
Like, in your case, Foo::operator-> produces (a reference to) an object of class Bar, which does define an operator->.
But when operator-> returns a pointer, as e.g. std::auto_ptr<T>::operator-> does, then it's just the built-in operator-> that's used.
In passing, the chaining can be used to practically prevent someone from using delete inappropriately. std::auto_ptr does not do that. And I’ve never seen it done.
But there was once a long discussion thread over in [comp.lang.c++.moderated] about how to prevent inadvertent delete of the raw pointer managed by a smart pointer, and this was one possibility that was discussed.
Cheers & hth.
The reason your first example works is because you returned a reference instead of a pointer. That operator would normally be invalid except in the case that it is overloaded. Therefore, the compiler must execute the overloaded functions down the chain. However, in the case of auto_ptr you actually are returned a real pointer and the default operator -> is invoked for regular pointers.
Please see the Overloading operator -> question for more details.
No, it is not possible for it to work. If you could overload operator -> for string * you could make it work. But operator -> already has a definition for all pointer types. So, just like you can't overload + for primitive numeric types, you can't overload operator -> for any pointer type.
And even if you could, how could the compiler know when the recursion should end?
If I have a pointer to an object that has an overloaded subscript operator ([]) why can't I do this:
MyClass *a = new MyClass();
a[1];
but have to do this instead:
MyClass *a = new MyClass();
(*a)[1];
It's because you can't overload operators for a pointer type; you can only overload an operator where at least one of the parameters (operands) is of class type or enumeration type.
Thus, if you have a pointer to an object of some class type that overloads the subscript operator, you have to dereference that pointer in order to call its overloaded subscript operator.
In your example, a has type MyClass*; this is a pointer type, so the built-in operator[] for pointers is used. When you dereference the pointer and obtain a MyClass, you have a class-type object, so the overloaded operator[] is used.
Because a is type pointer to a MyClass and not a MyClass. Changing the language to support your desired use would make many other language semantics break.
You can get the syntactic result you want from:
struct foo {
int a[10];
int& operator [](int i) { return a[i]; }
};
main() {
foo *a = new foo();
foo &b = *a;
b[2] = 3;
}
Good news. You can also do...
a->operator[](1);
To add on to the preferred answer, think of operator overloading as overloading functions.
When overloading member function of a class, you remember that the pointer is not of that class type.
Simply put, with a[1] the a pointer is treated as memory containing array, and you're trying to access the 2nd element in the array (which doesn't exist).
The (*a)[1] forces to first get the actual object at the pointer location, (*a), and then call the [] operator on it.