C++ Member (dot & arrow) Operators

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The . (dot) operator and the -> (arrow) operator are used to reference individual members of classes, structures, and unions.

The dot operator is applied to the actual object. The arrow operator is used with a pointer to an object. For example, consider the following structure −

 struct Employee { char first_name[16]; int age; } emp; 

The (.) dot operator

To assign the value "zara" to the first_name member of object emp, you would write something as follows −

 strcpy(emp.first_name, "zara"); 

Example

 #include <iostream> #include <cstring> using namespace std; struct Employee { char first_name[20]; }; int main() { Employee emp; // Using dot operator to assign a value strcpy(emp.first_name, "zara"); cout << "First Name: " << emp.first_name << endl; return 0; } 

When executed, this program outputs:

 First Name: zara 

The (->) arrow operator

If p_emp is a pointer to an object of type Employee, then to assign the value "zara" to the first_name member of object emp, you would write something as follows −

 strcpy(p_emp->first_name, "zara"); 

The -> is called the arrow operator. It is formed by using the minus sign followed by a greater than sign.

Example

 #include <iostream> #include <cstring> using namespace std; struct Employee { char first_name[20]; }; int main() { Employee emp; Employee* p_emp = &emp; // Using arrow operator to assign a value strcpy(p_emp->first_name, "zara"); cout << "First Name: " << p_emp->first_name << endl; return 0; } 

When executed, this program outputs:

 First Name: zara 

Simply saying: To access members of a structure, use the dot operator. To access members of a structure through a pointer, use the arrow operator.