Question

Inside a templated class, I found the expression, *this = NULL What does such an expression mean ?

The following is its definition:

TYPE** getPtr() 
{
 *this = NULL;
 return &m_pPtr;
}

where m_pPtr is type TYPE* in the template class.

Assignment operator:

// Assignment operator.
TYPE* operator =(TYPE *pPtr) {
  if (pPtr == m_pPtr)
    return pPtr;

  m_pPtr = pPtr;

  return m_pPtr;
}

Vishnu.

Answer 1

It’s difficult to say what the point of such a statement is without seeing the actual code.

But it will probably be invoking an overloaded assignment operator. e.g.:

#include <iostream>

class X {
public:
    void operator=(void *) {
        std::cout << "Here!\n";
    }

    void foo() {
        *this = NULL;
    }
};


int main() {
    X x;
    x.foo();
}