Question

I’m just wondering whether this is possible or not in C++.

In PHP (frameworks) I sometimes see classes (objects) and methods within the class being accessed by:

$this->encrypt->decode($msg, $key);

In one of my programs I have the following:

Directory *d = new Directory("dir");
d->open();

Is it possible to have instead:

Directory *d = new Directory("dir")->open();

So the two methods can be executed in the same line?

Answer 1

The PHP code $this->encrypt->decode($msg, $key); is calling the decode() method on encrypt within the current class.

The code you have is performing a different task of initialising a class and then calling it.

In the same way you couldn’t do this in PHP:

$test = new Test()->method();

.. you can’t do it in C++ either, no. You would not expect an instance of Test in $test in this case, it would instead be the return of method() on a newly instantiated test object.

That said, you can indeed inline it like you say if you only needed the return value of open() (or nothing at all) and not the instance of Directory:

Directory("dir").open();