Question

When I go thru the code written by collegue, in certain place, they use:

this->doSomething(); //-->case A
doSomething(); //-->case B

In fact I’m not sure about the great usage of *this pointer…:(

Another question with argument matching:

obj.doOperation();  //-->case C
(&obj)->doOperation(); //-->case D

In fact both cases are performing the desired operation, is it simply a way to make the code look more complex?

What is your recommendation on the above two question? When is the appropriate time to use them and why?

Answer 1

This is not an answer to your question, but a note that both fragments may do different things:

namespace B { void doSomething() {} }

struct A {    
    void f()
    {
        using B::doSomething;
        this->doSomething(); // call A::doSomething
        doSomething(); // calls B::doSomething
    }

    int a;
    void g(int a)
    {
        this->a = a; // assigns argument to member
    }

    A* operator & () { return this; }
    void doOperation() {}
    void doSomething() {}
};

void g(A &obj)
{
    obj.doOperation();  // calls A::doOperation directly
    (&obj)->doOperation(); // calls A::operator & first
}