Arrow operator (->) usage in C

Question

I am currently learning C by reading a good beginner's book called "Teach Yourself C in 21 Days" (I have already learned Java and C# so I am moving at a much faster pace). I was reading the chapter on pointers and the -> (arrow) operator came up without explanation. I think that it is used to call members and functions (like the equivalent of the . (dot) operator, but for pointers instead of members). But I am not entirely sure. Could I please get an explanation and a code sample?

Answer 1

foo->bar is only shorthand for (*foo).bar. That's all there is to it.

Answer 2

foo->bar is equivalent to (*foo).bar, i.e. it gets the member called bar from the struct that foo points to.

Answer 3

#include<stdio.h>

int main()
{
    struct foo
    {
        int x;
        float y;
    } var1;
    struct foo var;
    struct foo* pvar;

    pvar = &var1;
    /* if pvar = &var; it directly 
       takes values stored in var, and if give  
       new > values like pvar->x = 6; pvar->y = 22.4; 
       it modifies the values of var  
       object..so better to give new reference. */
    var.x = 5;
    (&var)->y = 14.3;
    printf("%i - %.02f\n", var.x, (&var)->y);

    pvar->x = 6;
    pvar->y = 22.4;
    printf("%i - %.02f\n", pvar->x, pvar->y);

    return 0;
}

Answer 4

Yes, that's it.

It's just the dot version when you want to access elements of a struct/class that is a pointer instead of a reference.

struct foo
{
  int x;
  float y;
};

struct foo var;
struct foo* pvar;

var.x = 5;
(&var)->y = 14.3;
pvar->y = 22.4;
(*pvar).x = 6;

That's it!

Answer 5

The -> operator makes the code more readable than the * operator in some situations.

Such as: (quoted from the EDK II project)

typedef
EFI_STATUS
(EFIAPI *EFI_BLOCK_READ)(
  IN EFI_BLOCK_IO_PROTOCOL          *This,
  IN UINT32                         MediaId,
  IN EFI_LBA                        Lba,
  IN UINTN                          BufferSize,
  OUT VOID                          *Buffer
  );


struct _EFI_BLOCK_IO_PROTOCOL {
  ///
  /// The revision to which the block IO interface adheres. All future
  /// revisions must be backwards compatible. If a future version is not
  /// back wards compatible, it is not the same GUID.
  ///
  UINT64              Revision;
  ///
  /// Pointer to the EFI_BLOCK_IO_MEDIA data for this device.
  ///
  EFI_BLOCK_IO_MEDIA  *Media;

  EFI_BLOCK_RESET     Reset;
  EFI_BLOCK_READ      ReadBlocks;
  EFI_BLOCK_WRITE     WriteBlocks;
  EFI_BLOCK_FLUSH     FlushBlocks;

};

The _EFI_BLOCK_IO_PROTOCOL struct contains 4 function pointer members.

Suppose you have a variable struct _EFI_BLOCK_IO_PROTOCOL * pStruct, and you want to use the good old * operator to call it's member function pointer. You will end up with code like this:

(*pStruct).ReadBlocks(...arguments...)

But with the -> operator, you can write like this:

pStruct->ReadBlocks(...arguments...).

Which looks better?