Question

Possible Duplicate:
C++ – Difference between (*). and ->?

What is the difference between this:

(*ptr).f();

and this:

ptr->f();

in c++ where the ptr is a pointer to C++ class which has a function f?

Answer 1

If ptr is a normal pointer, then both are equivalent. ptr->f is a short-cut to dereference the pointer (equivalent to (*ptr)) and access the member of the dereferenced object (equivalent to .f).

If ptr is a class that overloads operator-> and operator*, then they will each call different operator overloads, and so could have different behaviour.