Question

Short version of question

I seek advice as to whether to use ./*this versus ->/this,
i.e. C++ (*this).chained().methods() versus this->chained()->methods().

By the way, at the moment most of the pages I have seen recommend
[[C++ (*this).chained().methods()]].

I was just wondering, because you can’t do

My_Class object.chained().methods();

(By the way, I have not tested the examples in this first section. I provide tested examples in the second section.)

You must do

My_Class object;
object.chained().methods();

which is an annoying extra line

Or you can do

 My_Class object = My_Class().object.chained().methods();

which requires a value copy – not acceptable if the constructor has side effects, like registering the object instance – like so many Knobs libraries do

Or you can do

 My_Class* object_ptr = *(new My_Class).object.chained().methods();

which works, but requires that annoying *(ptr)

Or you can do

 My_Class* object_ptr = (new My_Class)->object.chained()->methods();

which is a teensy bit better.

I suppose you can do

My_Class& object_ref(My_Class().chained().methods());

and I am not sure what I think about that.

By the way, I do NOT need debugging help here.
I code stuff like this up all the time
I provide the examples only for clarity.

I am seeking style advice, because there are several ways to code it,
and I have used different libraries that do it in opposite ways.

And mixing them is ugly:

  My_Object_with_Setters* object_ptr2 = &((new My_Object_with_Setters)->set_R1(1).set_P1(2)->set_R1(3))

 My_Object().method_returning_ptr()->method_returning_ref();

Maybe it’s not that bad…. but it sure can be confusing.

When I run into code that uses two different libraries using mixed .chained()->methods()
I sometimes wish for the ability to have postfix address-of and dereference operators

My_Object* mptr = My_Object() .method_returning_ptr() -> method_returning_ref ->&

More complete Examples

Setter Functions

I most often use this idiom with setter functions

class My_Object_with_Setters {
public:
  static int count;
  int value;
public:
  My_Object_with_Setters() {
    ++count;
    value = 0;
  }
public:
  std::ostream& print_to_stream(std::ostream& ostr) const {
    ostr << "(" << this->count << "," << this->value << ")";
    return ostr;
  }
  friend std::ostream&
  operator<< (
    std::ostream& ostr,
    const My_Object_with_Setters& obj ) {
    return obj.print_to_stream(ostr);
  }

public:
  My_Object_with_Setters& set_R1(int val) {
    this->value = val;
    std::cout << "set_R1: " << *this << "\n";
    return *this;
  }
  My_Object_with_Setters& set_R2(int val) {
    this->value = val;
    std::cout << "set_R2: " << *this << "\n";
    return *this;
  }
public:
  My_Object_with_Setters* set_P1(int val) {
    this->value = val;
    std::cout << "set_P1: " << *this << "\n";
    return this;
  }
  My_Object_with_Setters* set_P2(int val) {
    this->value = val;
    std::cout << "set_P2: " << *this << "\n";
    return this;
  }
public:
  My_Object_with_Setters set_V1(int val) {
    this->value = val;
    std::cout << "set_V1: " << *this << "\n";
    My_Object_with_Setters retval;
    retval = *this;     // kluge to force new object
    return retval;
  }
  My_Object_with_Setters set_V2(int val) {
    this->value = val;
    std::cout << "set_V2: " << *this << "\n";
    My_Object_with_Setters retval;
    retval = *this;     // kluge to force new object
    return retval;
  }
};

int My_Object_with_Setters::count = 0;  // clas static, distinguishes instances

void test_My_Object_with_Setters()
{
  std::cout << "cascading ref, ref, copy, copy, ref, ref\n";
  My_Object_with_Setters object;
  object.set_R1(1).set_R2(2).set_V1(11).set_V2(12).set_R1(101).set_R2(102);

  std::cout << "cascading ptr, ptr, ptr, ptr\n";
  My_Object_with_Setters* object_ptr = (new My_Object_with_Setters)->set_P1(1)->set_P2(2)->set_P1(11)->set_P2(12);

  std::cout << "cascading &address-of, ptr, ptr\n";
  (&object)->set_P1(1)->set_P2(2);

  std::cout << "cascading new ptr ref ptr ref\n";
  My_Object_with_Setters* object_ptr2 = &(*(new My_Object_with_Setters)->set_R1(1).set_P1(2)).set_R1(3);

}

Test output:

cascading ref, ref, copy, copy, ref, ref
set_R1: (1,1)
set_R2: (1,2)
set_V1: (1,11)
set_V2: (2,12)
set_R1: (3,101)
set_R2: (3,102)
cascading ptr, ptr, ptr, ptr
set_P1: (4,1)
set_P2: (4,2)
set_P1: (4,11)
set_P2: (4,12)
cascading &address-of, ptr, ptr
set_P1: (4,1)
set_P2: (4,2)
cascading new ptr ref ptr ref
set_R1: (5,1)
set_P1: (5,2)
set_R1: (5,3)

Generic Example

class My_Object {
public:
  static int count;
public:
  My_Object() {
    ++count;
  }
public:
  My_Object& method1_returning_ref_to_current_object() {
    std::cout << count << ": method1_returning_ref_to_current_object\n";
    return *this;
  }
  My_Object& method2_returning_ref_to_current_object() {
    std::cout << count << ": method2_returning_ref_to_current_object\n";
    return *this;
  }
public:
  My_Object* method1_returning_ptr_to_current_object() {
    std::cout << count << ": method1_returning_ptr_to_current_object\n";
    return this;
  }
  My_Object* method2_returning_ptr_to_current_object() {
    std::cout << count << ": method2_returning_ptr_to_current_object\n";
    return this;
  }
public:
  My_Object method1_returning_value_copy_of_current_object() {
    std::cout << count << ": method1_returning_value_copy_of_current_object\n";
    My_Object retval;
    return retval;
  }
  My_Object method2_returning_value_copy_of_current_object() {
    std::cout << count << ": method2_returning_value_copy_of_current_object\n";
    My_Object retval;
    return *this;
  }
};

int My_Object::count = 0;   // clas static, distinguishes instances

void test_My_Object()
{
  std::cout << "cascading ref, ref, copy, copy, ref, ref\n";
  My_Object object;
  object
   .method1_returning_ref_to_current_object()
   .method2_returning_ref_to_current_object()
   .method1_returning_value_copy_of_current_object()
   .method2_returning_value_copy_of_current_object()
   .method1_returning_ref_to_current_object()
   .method2_returning_ref_to_current_object()
   ;

  std::cout << "cascading ptr, ptr, ptr, ptr\n";
  My_Object* object_ptr = new My_Object;
  object_ptr
   ->method1_returning_ptr_to_current_object()
   ->method2_returning_ptr_to_current_object()
   ->method1_returning_ptr_to_current_object()
   ->method2_returning_ptr_to_current_object()
   ;

  std::cout << "cascading &address-of, ptr, ptr\n";
  (&object)
   ->method1_returning_ptr_to_current_object()
   ->method2_returning_ptr_to_current_object()
   ;

  std::cout << "cascading new ptr ref ptr ref\n";
  My_Object* object_ptr2
   = (&(*(new My_Object)
    ->method1_returning_ptr_to_current_object())
    .method2_returning_ref_to_current_object())
   ;

}

Test output

cascading ref, ref, copy, copy, ref, ref
1: method1_returning_ref_to_current_object
1: method2_returning_ref_to_current_object
1: method1_returning_value_copy_of_current_object
2: method2_returning_value_copy_of_current_object
3: method1_returning_ref_to_current_object
3: method2_returning_ref_to_current_object
cascading ptr, ptr, ptr, ptr
4: method1_returning_ptr_to_current_object
4: method2_returning_ptr_to_current_object
4: method1_returning_ptr_to_current_object
4: method2_returning_ptr_to_current_object
cascading &address-of, ptr, ptr
4: method1_returning_ptr_to_current_object
4: method2_returning_ptr_to_current_object
cascading new ptr ref ptr ref
5: method1_returning_ptr_to_current_object
5: method2_returning_ref_to_current_object

By the way, I do NOT need debugging help here. I provide the examples only for clarity.

I am seeking style advice.

Answer 1

Everyone has their own style; as you say, it only really gets annoying when you start mixing them.

Personally, I only return a pointer from a function if it might be 0; this is never 0, so I would always return *this (i.e. a reference) and thus chain with ..

For what it’s worth, I also try really hard to make the default constructor cheap, partly because there are so many cases in which it turns out to be convenient to first default construct and then assign.