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1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 169 (from laksa014)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa169.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c","crawl_time":1775603443,"first_indexed_time":1431978445,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,stackoverflow!\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c s443","src_root_hash":"714406497480128969","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"pointers - Arrow operator (->) usage in C - Stack Overflow","meta_descriptions":[],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"Well I have to add something as well. Structure is a bit different than array because array is a pointer and structure is not. So be careful!\nLets say I write this useless piece of code:\n#\ninclude\n<stdio.h>\ntypedef\nstruct\n{\nint\nkm;\nint\nkph;\nint\nkg;\n    } car;\nint\nmain\n(\nvoid\n)\n{\n\n    car audi = {\n12000\n,\n230\n,\n760\n};\n    car *ptr = &audi;\n\n}\nHere pointer\nptr\npoints to the address (\n!\n) of the structure variable\naudi\nbut beside address structure also has a\nchunk of data\n(\n!\n)! The first member of the\nchunk of data\nhas the same address than structure itself and you can get it's data by only dereferencing a pointer like this\n*ptr\n(no braces)\n.\nBut If you want to acess any other member than the first one, you have to add a designator like\n.km\n,\n.kph\n,\n.kg\nwhich are nothing more than offsets to the base address of the\nchunk of data\n...\nBut because of the\npreceedence\nyou can't write\n*ptr.kg\nas access operator\n.\nis evaluated before dereference operator\n*\nand you would get\n*(ptr.kg)\nwhich is not possible as pointer has no members! And compiler knows this and will therefore issue an error e.g.:\nerror: ‘ptr’ is a pointer; did you mean to use ‘->’?\nprintf\n(\n\"%d\\n\"\n, *ptr.km);\nInstead you use this\n(*ptr).kg\nand you force compiler to\n1st\ndereference the pointer and enable acess to the\nchunk of data\nand\n2nd\nyou add an offset (designator) to choose the member.\nCheck this image I made:\nBut if you would have nested members this syntax would become unreadable and therefore\n->\nwas introduced. I think readability is the only justifiable reason for using it as this\nptr->kg\nis much easier to write than\n(*ptr).kg\n.\nNow let us write this differently so that you see the connection more clearly.\n(*ptr).kg\n⟹\n(*&audi).kg\n⟹\naudi.kg\n. Here I first used the fact that\nptr\nis an\n\"address of\naudi\n\"\ni.e.\n&audi\nand fact that\n\"reference\"\n&\nand\n\"dereference\"\n*\noperators cancel eachother out.","attrs_markdown":"# ![site logo](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/Content\/Img\/SE-logo75.png)\nBy clicking “Sign up”, you agree to our [terms of service](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/legal\/terms-of-service\/public) and acknowledge you have read our [privacy policy](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/legal\/privacy-policy).\n\n# OR\n\nAlready have an account? [Log in](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/login)\n\n[Skip to main content](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#content)\n\n1. [About](https:\/\/stackoverflow.co\/)\n2. Products\n3. [For Teams](https:\/\/stackoverflow.co\/internal\/)\n4. Try new site Try BETA\n\n1. 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Take our short survey](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/survey\/site-satisfaction\/redirect?source=sidebar \"Take our short survey\")\n\n# [Arrow operator (-\\>) usage in C](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c)\n[Ask Question](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/ask)\n\nAsked\n\n16 years ago\n\nModified [1 year, 10 months ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c?lastactivity \"2024-05-20 03:58:20Z\")\n\nViewed 687k times\n\nThis question shows research effort; it is useful and clear\n\n347\n\nSave this question.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\nI am reading a 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.\n\nCould I please get an explanation and a code sample?\n\n- [c](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/tagged\/c \"show questions tagged 'c'\")\n- [pointers](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/tagged\/pointers \"show questions tagged 'pointers'\")\n- [syntax](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/tagged\/syntax \"show questions tagged 'syntax'\")\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/q\/2575048 \"Short permalink to this question\")\n\nShare a link to this question\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 4.0](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0\")\n\n[Improve this question](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/2575048\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this question to receive notifications\n\n[edited Sep 23, 2019 at 12:29](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/2575048\/revisions \"show all edits to this post\")\n\n[![Jonathan Hall's user avatar](https:\/\/i.sstatic.net\/3mW5P.png?s=64)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/13860\/jonathan-hall)\n\n[Jonathan Hall](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/13860\/jonathan-hall)\n\n80\\.7k1919 gold badges163163 silver badges207207 bronze badges\n\nasked Apr 4, 2010 at 16:21\n\n[![Mohit Deshpande's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba84fa0f6814411b1a060d07ea2f1950?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/200477\/mohit-deshpande)\n\n[Mohit Deshpande](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/200477\/mohit-deshpande)\n\n55\\.6k7777 gold badges199199 silver badges257257 bronze badges\n\n10\n\n- 135\n  Get a better book. [norvig.com\/21-days.html](http:\/\/norvig.com\/21-days.html)\n  \n  joshperry\n  \n  – [joshperry](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/30587\/joshperry \"42,547 reputation\")\n  \n  2010-04-04 16:35:13 +00:00\n  \n  [Commented Apr 4, 2010 at 16:35](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment8614156_2575048)\n- 12\n  qrdl is correct -- the \"Learn X in Y days\" books are generally garbage. In addition to K\\&R, I would also recommend Prata's \"C Primer Plus\", which goes into more depth than K\\&R.\n  \n  J. Taylor\n  \n  – [J. Taylor](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/176410\/j-taylor \"4,945 reputation\")\n  \n  2011-04-29 23:29:00 +00:00\n  \n  [Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 23:29](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment6704061_2575048)\n- 3\n  @Steve That question deals with C++. Calling it a caused some confusion for me when I started reading about operator overloading in that other answer, which is not relevant in C.\n  \n  Johann\n  \n  – [Johann](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/825588\/johann \"4,422 reputation\")\n  \n  2013-05-13 19:42:28 +00:00\n  \n  [Commented May 13, 2013 at 19:42](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment23737535_2575048)\n- 1\n  @Belton The hard way series are bad, the guy says stuff that wasn't even relevant when he wrote the book and he doesn't care about good practices.\n  \n  Bálint\n  \n  – [Bálint](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/4934560\/b%C3%A1lint \"4,054 reputation\")\n  \n  2017-06-25 19:51:06 +00:00\n  \n  [Commented Jun 25, 2017 at 19:51](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment76480944_2575048)\n- 2\n  @uh\\_big\\_mike\\_boi Nonsense. Comments like these are helpfully pointing out that this is a poor book, and have provided several superior alternatives. It doesn't matter in the least whether the OP did or did not say, or thinks or does not think, it is a great book. It isn't, and that needs to be stated. Comments like *yours* are not helpful.\n  \n  user207421\n  \n  – [user207421](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/207421\/user207421 \"312,066 reputation\")\n  \n  2024-05-20 04:17:30 +00:00\n  \n  [Commented May 20, 2024 at 4:17](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment138400172_2575048)\n\n\\|   [Show **5** more comments](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c \"Expand to show all comments on this post\")\n\n## 11 Answers 11\nSorted by:\n\n[Reset to default](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c?answertab=scoredesc#tab-top)\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n622\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\n`foo->bar` is equivalent to `(*foo).bar`, i.e. it gets the member called `bar` from the struct that `foo` points to.\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/2575050 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 2.5](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.5\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 2.5\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/2575050\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\nanswered Apr 4, 2010 at 16:23\n\n[![sepp2k's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7a561ec0875fcbbe3066ea8fe288ec77?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/149392\/sepp2k)\n\n[sepp2k](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/149392\/sepp2k)\n\n372k5656 gold badges687687 silver badges687687 bronze badges\n\nSign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.\n\n## 8 Comments\nAdd a comment\n\n[![](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5cfe5f7d64f44be04f147295f5c7b88e?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/207421\/user207421)\n\nuser207421\n\n[user207421](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/207421\/user207421)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment44662605_2575050)\n\nIt's worth noting that if the dereference operator had been made postfix, as in Pascal, the `->` operator would not have been needed at all, as it would have been equivalent to the much more legible `foo*.bar`. The whole mess of typedef-ing functions with all the extra parentheses would have been avoided as well.\n\n2015-01-26T06:04:03.507Z+00:00\n\n71\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\n[![](https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/-_a7aQ1gNiFY\/AAAAAAAAAAI\/AAAAAAAAABw\/2usMjLqKwgI\/s48-rj\/photo.jpg)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/4441547\/aaron-franke)\n\nAaron Franke\n\n[Aaron Franke](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/4441547\/aaron-franke)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment95043791_2575050)\n\nSo would `foo*.bar` and `(*foo).bar` both be equivalent to `foo->bar`? What about `Foo myFoo = *foo; myFoo.bar`?\n\n2019-01-09T08:21:15.583Z+00:00\n\n1\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\n[![](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/efa67d5890612632e062ede96a7c3be7?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/1950345\/reichhart)\n\nreichhart\n\n[reichhart](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/1950345\/reichhart)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment97128545_2575050)\n\nNo, he is just saying *IF* the creators of C would have made the dereference operator as POSTfix operator instead of PREfix then it would have been more easy. But it IS a prefix operator in C.\n\n2019-03-16T09:59:44.197Z+00:00\n\n19\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\n[![](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d1dec1aa6accf3589489ebd42634f7a0?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/2742717\/swift-friday-pie)\n\nSwift - Friday Pie\n\n[Swift - Friday Pie](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/2742717\/swift-friday-pie)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment103325570_2575050)\n\n@user207421 nah, it would cause more parents.. so far, there is priority of () and \\[\\] to the right above \\* to the left. if they all on one side, you'll have put more parents. Same in expressions, because of conflict with multiplication operator. Pascal ^ could be an option but it was reserved for bit operation, still more parents.\n\n2019-10-22T06:32:32.49Z+00:00\n\n1\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\n[![](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7a561ec0875fcbbe3066ea8fe288ec77?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/149392\/sepp2k)\n\nsepp2k\n\n[sepp2k](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/149392\/sepp2k)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment117424951_2575050)\n\n@b0fh There's no technical reason why the language designers couldn't have made dereferencing implicit in this case (Rust does it in this case and other cases as well), but they didn't. Possibly because they felt that all dereferences should be explicit in the code and\/or because they wanted to keep the language rules as simple as possible. Note that C++ smart pointers have their own methods (like `use_count()` for shared\\_ptrs), so there it is necessary to distinguish between calling a method on the pointer vs. the pointee, but of course that didn't retroactively affect the design of C.\n\n2021-03-01T11:39:12.26Z+00:00\n\n4\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\nAdd a comment\n\n\\|\n\nShow 3 more comments\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n163\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\nYes, that's it.\n\nIt's just the dot version when you want to access elements of a struct\/class that is a pointer instead of a reference.\n```\nCopy\n```\nThat's it\\!\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/2575051 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 4.0](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/2575051\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\n[edited Jun 22, 2021 at 19:28](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/2575051\/revisions \"show all edits to this post\")\n\n[![Hymns For Disco's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7d6ff70b084489c4f456062ce83ab40f?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG&f=y&so-version=2)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/11424673\/hymns-for-disco)\n\n[Hymns For Disco](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/11424673\/hymns-for-disco)\n\n8,55522 gold badges2626 silver badges4242 bronze badges\n\nanswered Apr 4, 2010 at 16:23\n\n[![Jack's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7d8f2d9904d869783dcff1803c6fbcb?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG&f=y&so-version=2)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/121747\/jack)\n\n[Jack](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/121747\/jack)\n\n134k3333 gold badges252252 silver badges349349 bronze badges\n\n## 5 Comments\nAdd a comment\n\n[![](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/98a347823cd1db90af884b227a29c29e?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/582917\/cmcdragonkai)\n\nCMCDragonkai\n\n[CMCDragonkai](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/582917\/cmcdragonkai)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment53434074_2575051)\n\nSince pvar is uninitialised, how would you initialise it if you wanted pvar to point to a new struct, that is not `pvar = &var`?\n\n2015-09-26T14:27:43.737Z+00:00\n\n3\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\nuser2442944\n\nuser2442944\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment69658592_2575051)\n\nThe question was specifically about C, which does not have classes or reference variables.\n\n2016-12-19T19:34:24.81Z+00:00\n\n1\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\n[![](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63c7436d6b05ba912a5cb0b0bf254c93?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/236062\/zibri)\n\nZibri\n\n[Zibri](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/236062\/zibri)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment85804535_2575051)\n\nhmm shouldn't you do a malloc before writing to pvar struct foo\\* pvar; ?? pvar-\\>y write to unallocated space\\!\n\n2018-03-21T08:46:14.66Z+00:00\n\n1\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\n[![](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/efa67d5890612632e062ede96a7c3be7?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/1950345\/reichhart)\n\nreichhart\n\n[reichhart](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/1950345\/reichhart)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment97128601_2575051)\n\npvar initialization: Initialize all members manually to some defaults you want to have or use something like calloc() if zero fill would be fine for you.\n\n2019-03-16T10:03:23.05Z+00:00\n\n0\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\n[![](https:\/\/graph.facebook.com\/817637355019559\/picture?type=large)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/8429828\/yuri-aps)\n\nYuri Aps\n\n[Yuri Aps](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/8429828\/yuri-aps)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment100578086_2575051)\n\nshouldn't it be: pvar = malloc(sizeof(struct foo)) or malloc(sizeof(\\*pvar))??\n\n2019-07-14T02:01:46.4Z+00:00\n\n5\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\nAdd a comment\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n50\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\nI'd just add to the answers the \"why?\".\n\n`.` is standard member access operator that has a higher precedence than `*` pointer operator.\n\nWhen you are trying to access a struct's internals and you wrote it as `*foo.bar` then the compiler would think to want a 'bar' element of 'foo' (which is an address in memory) and obviously that mere address does not have any members.\n\nThus you need to ask the compiler to first dereference whith `(*foo)` and then access the member element: `(*foo).bar`, which is a bit clumsy to write so the good folks have come up with a shorthand version: `foo->bar` which is sort of member access by pointer operator.\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/46843382 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 3.0](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/46843382\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\nanswered Oct 20, 2017 at 6:20\n\n[![Lukasz Matysiak's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8206b13e39a75abbb283fd09dd8f0613?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/8187710\/lukasz-matysiak)\n\n[Lukasz Matysiak](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/8187710\/lukasz-matysiak)\n\n93177 silver badges1111 bronze badges\n\n## Comments\nAdd a comment\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n41\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\n`a->b` is just short for `(*a).b` in every way (same for functions: `a->b()` is short for `(*a).b()`).\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/2575052 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 2.5](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.5\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 2.5\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/2575052\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\nanswered Apr 4, 2010 at 16:23\n\n[![Peter Alexander's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4a2e0b7d905b4a7841e489e9f100eb50?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/235825\/peter-alexander)\n\n[Peter Alexander](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/235825\/peter-alexander)\n\n54\\.5k1414 gold badges123123 silver badges169169 bronze badges\n\n## 2 Comments\nAdd a comment\n\n[![](https:\/\/i.sstatic.net\/3N48C.png?s=64)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/7571052\/asheketchum)\n\nAsheKetchum\n\n[AsheKetchum](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/7571052\/asheketchum)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment76889794_2575052)\n\nis there documentation that says it also works that way for methods?\n\n2017-07-06T19:15:24.173Z+00:00\n\n1\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\n[![](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5cfe5f7d64f44be04f147295f5c7b88e?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/207421\/user207421)\n\nuser207421\n\n[user207421](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/207421\/user207421)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment138400185_2575052)\n\n@AsheKetchum It has to work that way for methods, because of the respective definitions. It doesn't need to be explicitly stated, although it may well be.\n\n2024-05-20T04:19:27.143Z+00:00\n\n0\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n25\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\n`foo->bar` is only shorthand for `(*foo).bar`. That's all there is to it.\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/2575053 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 2.5](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.5\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 2.5\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/2575053\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\nanswered Apr 4, 2010 at 16:23\n\n[![Matti Virkkunen's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b03410a67ad6b9cf3fce7b0bf45084c8?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/227267\/matti-virkkunen)\n\n[Matti Virkkunen](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/227267\/matti-virkkunen)\n\n65\\.5k99 gold badges140140 silver badges162162 bronze badges\n\n## Comments\nAdd a comment\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n18\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\nWell I have to add something as well. Structure is a bit different than array because array is a pointer and structure is not. So be careful\\!\n\nLets say I write this useless piece of code:\n```\nCopy\n```\nHere pointer `ptr` points to the address (**\\!**) of the structure variable `audi` but beside address structure also has a **chunk of data** (**\\!**)! The first member of the **chunk of data** has the same address than structure itself and you can get it's data by only dereferencing a pointer like this `*ptr` *(no braces)*.\n\nBut If you want to acess any other member than the first one, you have to add a designator like `.km`, `.kph`, `.kg` which are nothing more than offsets to the base address of the **chunk of data**...\n\nBut because of the [preceedence](https:\/\/en.cppreference.com\/w\/cpp\/language\/operator_precedence) you can't write `*ptr.kg` as access operator `.` is evaluated before dereference operator `*` and you would get `*(ptr.kg)` which is not possible as pointer has no members! And compiler knows this and will therefore issue an error e.g.:\n```\nCopy\n```\nInstead you use this `(*ptr).kg` and you force compiler to **1st** dereference the pointer and enable acess to the **chunk of data** and **2nd** you add an offset (designator) to choose the member.\n\nCheck this image I made:\n\n[![enter image description here](https:\/\/i.sstatic.net\/hSaCj.png)](https:\/\/i.sstatic.net\/hSaCj.png)\n\nBut if you would have nested members this syntax would become unreadable and therefore `->` was introduced. I think readability is the only justifiable reason for using it as this `ptr->kg` is much easier to write than `(*ptr).kg`.\n\nNow let us write this differently so that you see the connection more clearly. `(*ptr).kg` ⟹ `(*&audi).kg` ⟹ `audi.kg`. Here I first used the fact that `ptr` is an *\"address of `audi`\"* i.e. `&audi` and fact that *\"reference\"* `&` and *\"dereference\"* `*` operators cancel eachother out.\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/61566897 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 4.0](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/61566897\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\n[edited May 8, 2020 at 10:05](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/61566897\/revisions \"show all edits to this post\")\n\nanswered May 2, 2020 at 22:02\n\n[![71GA's user avatar](https:\/\/i.sstatic.net\/Jz42l.jpg?s=64)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/689242\/71ga)\n\n[71GA](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/689242\/71ga)\n\n1,54199 gold badges4747 silver badges8585 bronze badges\n\n## Comments\nAdd a comment\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n12\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\n```\nCopy\n```\nHere to access the values of `i` and `j` we can use the variable `a` and the pointer `p` as follows: `a.i`, `(*p).i` and `p->i` are all the same.\n\nHere `.` is a \"Direct Selector\" and `->` is an \"Indirect Selector\".\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/42173683 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 4.0](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/42173683\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\n[edited Apr 21, 2023 at 11:54](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/42173683\/revisions \"show all edits to this post\")\n\nanswered Feb 11, 2017 at 8:01\n\n[![JgWangdu's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7018c8ff4a937c398ab19bbd1c851275?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG&f=y&so-version=2)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/7173263\/jgwangdu)\n\n[JgWangdu](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/7173263\/jgwangdu)\n\n31722 silver badges99 bronze badges\n\n## Comments\nAdd a comment\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n1\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\nI had to make a small change to Jack's program to get it to run. After declaring the struct pointer pvar, point it to the address of var. I found this solution on page 242 of Stephen Kochan's Programming in C.\n```\nCopy\n```\nRun this in vim with the following command:\n```\nCopy:!gcc -o var var.c && .\/var\n```\nWill output:\n```\nCopy\n```\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/28934009 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 3.0](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/28934009\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\nanswered Mar 9, 2015 at 1:35\n\n[![Rich Vogt's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0632cac8e7c2122efdd45f93657737ec?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/2069474\/rich-vogt)\n\n[Rich Vogt](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/2069474\/rich-vogt)\n\n9311 silver badge99 bronze badges\n\n## 1 Comment\nAdd a comment\n\n[![](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cbe5582212032c88ca6592defb48f36b?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/187890\/jibberia)\n\njibberia\n\n[jibberia](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/187890\/jibberia)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment53969484_28934009)\n\nvim tip: use `%` to represent the current filename. Like so: `!gcc % && .\/a.out`\n\n2015-10-12T08:10:06.733Z+00:00\n\n4\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n1\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\nThe `->` operator makes the code more readable than the `*` operator in some situations.\n\nSuch as: (quoted from the [EDK II project](http:\/\/sourceforge.net\/projects\/edk2\/))\n```\nCopy\n```\nThe `_EFI_BLOCK_IO_PROTOCOL` struct contains 4 function pointer members.\n\nSuppose 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:\n\n`(*pStruct).ReadBlocks(...arguments...)`\n\nBut with the `->` operator, you can write like this:\n\n`pStruct->ReadBlocks(...arguments...)`.\n\nWhich looks better?\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/31943584 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 3.0](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/31943584\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\n[edited Feb 11, 2017 at 9:32](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/31943584\/revisions \"show all edits to this post\")\n\n[![Donald Duck is with Ukraine's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2e017633cda5465e6683c74992cdec5e?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/4284627\/donald-duck-is-with-ukraine)\n\n[Donald Duck is with Ukraine](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/4284627\/donald-duck-is-with-ukraine)\n\n9,1002323 gold badges8282 silver badges109109 bronze badges\n\nanswered Aug 11, 2015 at 13:47\n\n[![smwikipedia's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8ccbe08a132ba61eae9ff8984ca44e81?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/264052\/smwikipedia)\n\n[smwikipedia](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/264052\/smwikipedia)\n\n65\\.2k101101 gold badges336336 silver badges519519 bronze badges\n\n## Comments\nAdd a comment\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n1\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\n```\nCopy\n```\noutput is 5 5 5\n\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/50638678 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 4.0](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/50638678\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\nanswered Jun 1, 2018 at 7:56\n\n[![prashanth's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/41bbf47f6beda0353b8bab81d78afdc3?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG&f=y&so-version=2)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/9847765\/prashanth)\n\n[prashanth](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/9847765\/prashanth)\n\n1111 bronze badge\n\n## Comments\nAdd a comment\n\nThis answer is useful\n\n0\n\nSave this answer.\n\nShow activity on this post.\n\n```\nCopy\n```\n[Share](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/30545537 \"Short permalink to this answer\")\n\nShare a link to this answer\n\nCopy link\n\n[CC BY-SA 3.0](https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/ \"The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0\")\n\n[Improve this answer](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/30545537\/edit)\n\nFollow\n\nFollow this answer to receive notifications\n\n[edited May 30, 2015 at 11:29](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/posts\/30545537\/revisions \"show all edits to this post\")\n\n[![Tommy Andersen's user avatar](https:\/\/i.sstatic.net\/fjZrH.jpg?s=64)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/111143\/tommy-andersen)\n\n[Tommy Andersen](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/111143\/tommy-andersen)\n\n7,31011 gold badge3535 silver badges5555 bronze badges\n\nanswered May 30, 2015 at 11:23\n\n[![Gopal Rao's user avatar](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/abfdb1c6d07813cb5db72d98c3b55d86?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/4956051\/gopal-rao)\n\n[Gopal Rao](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/4956051\/gopal-rao)\n\n911 bronze badge\n\n## 2 Comments\nAdd a comment\n\n[![](https:\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5cfe5f7d64f44be04f147295f5c7b88e?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/207421\/user207421)\n\nuser207421\n\n[user207421](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/207421\/user207421)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment138400189_30545537)\n\nMere code is not an answer. You have to explain.\n\n2024-05-20T04:20:25.757Z+00:00\n\n0\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\n[![](https:\/\/i.sstatic.net\/TMTape2J.png?s=64)](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/17726418\/cppuix)\n\nCPPUIX\n\n[CPPUIX](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/users\/17726418\/cppuix)\n\n[Over a year ago](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/2575048\/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment138415086_30545537)\n\n[\"Not an answer\" flagging guidelines](https:\/\/meta.stackoverflow.com\/a\/265553\/17726418).\n\n2024-05-21T17:24:13.567Z+00:00\n\n0\n\nReply\n\n- Copy link\n\n**[Protected question](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/help\/privileges\/protect-questions)**. To answer this question, you need to have at least 10 reputation on this site (not counting the [association bonus](https:\/\/meta.stackexchange.com\/questions\/141648\/what-is-the-association-bonus-and-how-does-it-work)). 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[What's reputation and how do I get it?](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/help\/whats-reputation)\n\nInstead, you can save this post to reference later.\n\nSave this post for later\n\nNot now\n\n##### [Stack Overflow](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/)\n- [Questions](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions)\n- [Help](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/help)\n- [Chat](https:\/\/chat.stackoverflow.com\/?tab=explore)\n\n##### [Business](https:\/\/stackoverflow.co\/)\n- [Stack Internal](https:\/\/stackoverflow.co\/internal\/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=stackoverflow-community&utm_campaign=footer&utm_content=teams)\n- [Stack Data Licensing](https:\/\/stackoverflow.co\/data-licensing\/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=stackoverflow-community&utm_campaign=footer&utm_content=data-licensing)\n- [Stack Ads](https:\/\/stackoverflow.co\/advertising\/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=stackoverflow-community&utm_campaign=footer&utm_content=advertising)\n\n##### [Company](https:\/\/stackoverflow.co\/)\n- [About](https:\/\/stackoverflow.co\/)\n- [Press](https:\/\/stackoverflow.co\/company\/press\/)\n- [Work Here](https:\/\/stackoverflow.co\/company\/work-here\/)\n- [Legal](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/legal)\n- [Privacy Policy](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/legal\/privacy-policy)\n- [Terms of Service](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/legal\/terms-of-service\/public)\n- [Contact Us](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/contact)\n- Cookie Settings\n- [Cookie Policy](https:\/\/policies.stackoverflow.co\/stack-overflow\/cookie-policy)\n\n##### [Stack Exchange Network](https:\/\/stackexchange.com\/)\n- [Technology](https:\/\/stackexchange.com\/sites#technology)\n- [Culture & recreation](https:\/\/stackexchange.com\/sites#culturerecreation)\n- [Life & arts](https:\/\/stackexchange.com\/sites#lifearts)\n- [Science](https:\/\/stackexchange.com\/sites#science)\n- [Professional](https:\/\/stackexchange.com\/sites#professional)\n- [Business](https:\/\/stackexchange.com\/sites#business)\n- [API](https:\/\/api.stackexchange.com\/)\n- [Data](https:\/\/data.stackexchange.com\/)\n\n- [Blog](https:\/\/stackoverflow.blog\/?blb=1)\n- [Facebook](https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/officialstackoverflow\/)\n- [Twitter](https:\/\/twitter.com\/stackoverflow)\n- [LinkedIn](https:\/\/linkedin.com\/company\/stack-overflow)\n- [Instagram](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thestackoverflow)\n\nSite design \/ logo © 2026 Stack Exchange Inc;  user contributions licensed under  [CC BY-SA](https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/help\/licensing) .  rev 2026.4.7.41816","attrs_readable_markdown":"Well I have to add something as well. Structure is a bit different than array because array is a pointer and structure is not. So be careful\\!\n\nLets say I write this useless piece of code:\n```\n#include <stdio.h>\n\ntypedef struct{\n        int km;\n        int kph;\n        int kg;\n    } car;\n\nint main(void){\n\n    car audi = {12000, 230, 760};\n    car *ptr = &audi;\n\n}\n```\nHere pointer `ptr` points to the address (**\\!**) of the structure variable `audi` but beside address structure also has a **chunk of data** (**\\!**)! The first member of the **chunk of data** has the same address than structure itself and you can get it's data by only dereferencing a pointer like this `*ptr` *(no braces)*.\n\nBut If you want to acess any other member than the first one, you have to add a designator like `.km`, `.kph`, `.kg` which are nothing more than offsets to the base address of the **chunk of data**...\n\nBut because of the [preceedence](https:\/\/en.cppreference.com\/w\/cpp\/language\/operator_precedence) you can't write `*ptr.kg` as access operator `.` is evaluated before dereference operator `*` and you would get `*(ptr.kg)` which is not possible as pointer has no members! And compiler knows this and will therefore issue an error e.g.:\n```\nerror: ‘ptr’ is a pointer; did you mean to use ‘->’?\n  printf(\"%d\\n\", *ptr.km);\n```\nInstead you use this `(*ptr).kg` and you force compiler to **1st** dereference the pointer and enable acess to the **chunk of data** and **2nd** you add an offset (designator) to choose the member.\n\nCheck this image I made:\n\n[![enter image description here](https:\/\/i.sstatic.net\/hSaCj.png)](https:\/\/i.sstatic.net\/hSaCj.png)\n\nBut if you would have nested members this syntax would become unreadable and therefore `->` was introduced. I think readability is the only justifiable reason for using it as this `ptr->kg` is much easier to write than `(*ptr).kg`.\n\nNow let us write this differently so that you see the connection more clearly. `(*ptr).kg` ⟹ `(*&audi).kg` ⟹ `audi.kg`. Here I first used the fact that `ptr` is an *\"address of `audi`\"* i.e. `&audi` and fact that *\"reference\"* `&` and *\"dereference\"* `*` operators cancel eachother out.","meta_canonical":null}

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Boilerpipe Text	Well I have to add something as well. Structure is a bit different than array because array is a pointer and structure is not. So be careful! Lets say I write this useless piece of code: # include <stdio.h> typedef struct { int km; int kph; int kg; } car; int main ( void ) { car audi = { 12000 , 230 , 760 }; car ptr = &audi; } Here pointer ptr points to the address ( ! ) of the structure variable audi but beside address structure also has a chunk of data ( ! )! The first member of the chunk of data has the same address than structure itself and you can get it's data by only dereferencing a pointer like this ptr (no braces) . But If you want to acess any other member than the first one, you have to add a designator like .km , .kph , .kg which are nothing more than offsets to the base address of the chunk of data ... But because of the preceedence you can't write ptr.kg as access operator . is evaluated before dereference operator and you would get (ptr.kg) which is not possible as pointer has no members! And compiler knows this and will therefore issue an error e.g.: error: ‘ptr’ is a pointer; did you mean to use ‘->’? printf ( "%d\n" , ptr.km); Instead you use this (ptr).kg and you force compiler to 1st dereference the pointer and enable acess to the chunk of data and 2nd you add an offset (designator) to choose the member. Check this image I made: But if you would have nested members this syntax would become unreadable and therefore -> was introduced. I think readability is the only justifiable reason for using it as this ptr->kg is much easier to write than (ptr).kg . Now let us write this differently so that you see the connection more clearly. (ptr).kg ⟹ (&audi).kg ⟹ audi.kg . Here I first used the fact that ptr is an "address of audi " i.e. &audi and fact that "reference" & and "dereference" * operators cancel eachother out.
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[Explore Stack Internal](https://stackoverflow.co/internal/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=stackoverflow-community&utm_campaign=side-bar&utm_content=explore-teams-compact-popover) [![](https://stackoverflow.com/Content/Img/survey-cta.svg?v=171e02557b0d) How are we doing? Take our short survey](https://stackoverflow.com/survey/site-satisfaction/redirect?source=sidebar "Take our short survey") # [Arrow operator (-\>) usage in C](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c) [Ask Question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask) Asked 16 years ago Modified [1 year, 10 months ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c?lastactivity "2024-05-20 03:58:20Z") Viewed 687k times This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear 347 Save this question. Show activity on this post. I am reading a 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? - [c](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/c "show questions tagged 'c'") - [pointers](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/pointers "show questions tagged 'pointers'") - [syntax](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/syntax "show questions tagged 'syntax'") [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/q/2575048 "Short permalink to this question") Share a link to this question Copy link [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0") [Improve this question](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/2575048/edit) Follow Follow this question to receive notifications [edited Sep 23, 2019 at 12:29](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/2575048/revisions "show all edits to this post") [![Jonathan Hall's user avatar](https://i.sstatic.net/3mW5P.png?s=64)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/13860/jonathan-hall) [Jonathan Hall](https://stackoverflow.com/users/13860/jonathan-hall) 80\.7k1919 gold badges163163 silver badges207207 bronze badges asked Apr 4, 2010 at 16:21 [![Mohit Deshpande's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/ba84fa0f6814411b1a060d07ea2f1950?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/200477/mohit-deshpande) [Mohit Deshpande](https://stackoverflow.com/users/200477/mohit-deshpande) 55\.6k7777 gold badges199199 silver badges257257 bronze badges 10 - 135 Get a better book. [norvig.com/21-days.html](http://norvig.com/21-days.html) joshperry – [joshperry](https://stackoverflow.com/users/30587/joshperry "42,547 reputation") 2010-04-04 16:35:13 +00:00 [Commented Apr 4, 2010 at 16:35](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment8614156_2575048) - 12 qrdl is correct -- the "Learn X in Y days" books are generally garbage. In addition to K\&R, I would also recommend Prata's "C Primer Plus", which goes into more depth than K\&R. J. Taylor – [J. Taylor](https://stackoverflow.com/users/176410/j-taylor "4,945 reputation") 2011-04-29 23:29:00 +00:00 [Commented Apr 29, 2011 at 23:29](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment6704061_2575048) - 3 @Steve That question deals with C++. Calling it a caused some confusion for me when I started reading about operator overloading in that other answer, which is not relevant in C. Johann – [Johann](https://stackoverflow.com/users/825588/johann "4,422 reputation") 2013-05-13 19:42:28 +00:00 [Commented May 13, 2013 at 19:42](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment23737535_2575048) - 1 @Belton The hard way series are bad, the guy says stuff that wasn't even relevant when he wrote the book and he doesn't care about good practices. Bálint – [Bálint](https://stackoverflow.com/users/4934560/b%C3%A1lint "4,054 reputation") 2017-06-25 19:51:06 +00:00 [Commented Jun 25, 2017 at 19:51](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment76480944_2575048) - 2 @uh\_big\_mike\_boi Nonsense. Comments like these are helpfully pointing out that this is a poor book, and have provided several superior alternatives. It doesn't matter in the least whether the OP did or did not say, or thinks or does not think, it is a great book. It isn't, and that needs to be stated. Comments like yours are not helpful. user207421 – [user207421](https://stackoverflow.com/users/207421/user207421 "312,066 reputation") 2024-05-20 04:17:30 +00:00 [Commented May 20, 2024 at 4:17](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment138400172_2575048) \\| [Show 5 more comments](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c "Expand to show all comments on this post") ## 11 Answers 11 Sorted by: [Reset to default](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c?answertab=scoredesc#tab-top) This answer is useful 622 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. `foo->bar` is equivalent to `(foo).bar`, i.e. it gets the member called `bar` from the struct that `foo` points to. [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/2575050 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 2.5](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 2.5") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/2575050/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Apr 4, 2010 at 16:23 [![sepp2k's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7a561ec0875fcbbe3066ea8fe288ec77?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/149392/sepp2k) [sepp2k](https://stackoverflow.com/users/149392/sepp2k) 372k5656 gold badges687687 silver badges687687 bronze badges Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments. ## 8 Comments Add a comment [![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/5cfe5f7d64f44be04f147295f5c7b88e?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/207421/user207421) user207421 [user207421](https://stackoverflow.com/users/207421/user207421) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment44662605_2575050) It's worth noting that if the dereference operator had been made postfix, as in Pascal, the `->` operator would not have been needed at all, as it would have been equivalent to the much more legible `foo.bar`. The whole mess of typedef-ing functions with all the extra parentheses would have been avoided as well. 2015-01-26T06:04:03.507Z+00:00 71 Reply - Copy link [![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_a7aQ1gNiFY/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAABw/2usMjLqKwgI/s48-rj/photo.jpg)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/4441547/aaron-franke) Aaron Franke [Aaron Franke](https://stackoverflow.com/users/4441547/aaron-franke) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment95043791_2575050) So would `foo.bar` and `(foo).bar` both be equivalent to `foo->bar`? What about `Foo myFoo = foo; myFoo.bar`? 2019-01-09T08:21:15.583Z+00:00 1 Reply - Copy link [![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/efa67d5890612632e062ede96a7c3be7?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1950345/reichhart) reichhart [reichhart](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1950345/reichhart) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment97128545_2575050) No, he is just saying IF* the creators of C would have made the dereference operator as POSTfix operator instead of PREfix then it would have been more easy. But it IS a prefix operator in C. 2019-03-16T09:59:44.197Z+00:00 19 Reply - Copy link [![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/d1dec1aa6accf3589489ebd42634f7a0?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/2742717/swift-friday-pie) Swift - Friday Pie [Swift - Friday Pie](https://stackoverflow.com/users/2742717/swift-friday-pie) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment103325570_2575050) @user207421 nah, it would cause more parents.. so far, there is priority of () and \[\] to the right above \* to the left. if they all on one side, you'll have put more parents. Same in expressions, because of conflict with multiplication operator. Pascal ^ could be an option but it was reserved for bit operation, still more parents. 2019-10-22T06:32:32.49Z+00:00 1 Reply - Copy link [![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7a561ec0875fcbbe3066ea8fe288ec77?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/149392/sepp2k) sepp2k [sepp2k](https://stackoverflow.com/users/149392/sepp2k) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment117424951_2575050) @b0fh There's no technical reason why the language designers couldn't have made dereferencing implicit in this case (Rust does it in this case and other cases as well), but they didn't. Possibly because they felt that all dereferences should be explicit in the code and/or because they wanted to keep the language rules as simple as possible. Note that C++ smart pointers have their own methods (like `use_count()` for shared\_ptrs), so there it is necessary to distinguish between calling a method on the pointer vs. the pointee, but of course that didn't retroactively affect the design of C. 2021-03-01T11:39:12.26Z+00:00 4 Reply - Copy link Add a comment \\| Show 3 more comments This answer is useful 163 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. 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. ``` Copy ``` That's it\! [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/2575051 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/2575051/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications [edited Jun 22, 2021 at 19:28](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/2575051/revisions "show all edits to this post") [![Hymns For Disco's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7d6ff70b084489c4f456062ce83ab40f?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG&f=y&so-version=2)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/11424673/hymns-for-disco) [Hymns For Disco](https://stackoverflow.com/users/11424673/hymns-for-disco) 8,55522 gold badges2626 silver badges4242 bronze badges answered Apr 4, 2010 at 16:23 [![Jack's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/d7d8f2d9904d869783dcff1803c6fbcb?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG&f=y&so-version=2)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/121747/jack) [Jack](https://stackoverflow.com/users/121747/jack) 134k3333 gold badges252252 silver badges349349 bronze badges ## 5 Comments Add a comment [![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/98a347823cd1db90af884b227a29c29e?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/582917/cmcdragonkai) CMCDragonkai [CMCDragonkai](https://stackoverflow.com/users/582917/cmcdragonkai) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment53434074_2575051) Since pvar is uninitialised, how would you initialise it if you wanted pvar to point to a new struct, that is not `pvar = &var`? 2015-09-26T14:27:43.737Z+00:00 3 Reply - Copy link user2442944 user2442944 [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment69658592_2575051) The question was specifically about C, which does not have classes or reference variables. 2016-12-19T19:34:24.81Z+00:00 1 Reply - Copy link [![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/63c7436d6b05ba912a5cb0b0bf254c93?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/236062/zibri) Zibri [Zibri](https://stackoverflow.com/users/236062/zibri) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment85804535_2575051) hmm shouldn't you do a malloc before writing to pvar struct foo\* pvar; ?? pvar-\>y write to unallocated space\! 2018-03-21T08:46:14.66Z+00:00 1 Reply - Copy link [![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/efa67d5890612632e062ede96a7c3be7?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1950345/reichhart) reichhart [reichhart](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1950345/reichhart) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment97128601_2575051) pvar initialization: Initialize all members manually to some defaults you want to have or use something like calloc() if zero fill would be fine for you. 2019-03-16T10:03:23.05Z+00:00 0 Reply - Copy link [![](https://graph.facebook.com/817637355019559/picture?type=large)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/8429828/yuri-aps) Yuri Aps [Yuri Aps](https://stackoverflow.com/users/8429828/yuri-aps) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment100578086_2575051) shouldn't it be: pvar = malloc(sizeof(struct foo)) or malloc(sizeof(\pvar))?? 2019-07-14T02:01:46.4Z+00:00 5 Reply - Copy link Add a comment This answer is useful 50 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. I'd just add to the answers the "why?". `.` is standard member access operator that has a higher precedence than `` pointer operator. When you are trying to access a struct's internals and you wrote it as `foo.bar` then the compiler would think to want a 'bar' element of 'foo' (which is an address in memory) and obviously that mere address does not have any members. Thus you need to ask the compiler to first dereference whith `(foo)` and then access the member element: `(foo).bar`, which is a bit clumsy to write so the good folks have come up with a shorthand version: `foo->bar` which is sort of member access by pointer operator. [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/46843382 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/46843382/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Oct 20, 2017 at 6:20 [![Lukasz Matysiak's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/8206b13e39a75abbb283fd09dd8f0613?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/8187710/lukasz-matysiak) [Lukasz Matysiak](https://stackoverflow.com/users/8187710/lukasz-matysiak) 93177 silver badges1111 bronze badges ## Comments Add a comment This answer is useful 41 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. `a->b` is just short for `(a).b` in every way (same for functions: `a->b()` is short for `(a).b()`). [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/2575052 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 2.5](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 2.5") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/2575052/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Apr 4, 2010 at 16:23 [![Peter Alexander's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/4a2e0b7d905b4a7841e489e9f100eb50?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/235825/peter-alexander) [Peter Alexander](https://stackoverflow.com/users/235825/peter-alexander) 54\.5k1414 gold badges123123 silver badges169169 bronze badges ## 2 Comments Add a comment [![](https://i.sstatic.net/3N48C.png?s=64)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/7571052/asheketchum) AsheKetchum [AsheKetchum](https://stackoverflow.com/users/7571052/asheketchum) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment76889794_2575052) is there documentation that says it also works that way for methods? 2017-07-06T19:15:24.173Z+00:00 1 Reply - Copy link [![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/5cfe5f7d64f44be04f147295f5c7b88e?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/207421/user207421) user207421 [user207421](https://stackoverflow.com/users/207421/user207421) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment138400185_2575052) @AsheKetchum It has to work that way for methods, because of the respective definitions. It doesn't need to be explicitly stated, although it may well be. 2024-05-20T04:19:27.143Z+00:00 0 Reply - Copy link This answer is useful 25 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. `foo->bar` is only shorthand for `(foo).bar`. That's all there is to it. [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/2575053 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 2.5](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 2.5") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/2575053/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Apr 4, 2010 at 16:23 [![Matti Virkkunen's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/b03410a67ad6b9cf3fce7b0bf45084c8?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/227267/matti-virkkunen) [Matti Virkkunen](https://stackoverflow.com/users/227267/matti-virkkunen) 65\.5k99 gold badges140140 silver badges162162 bronze badges ## Comments Add a comment This answer is useful 18 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. Well I have to add something as well. Structure is a bit different than array because array is a pointer and structure is not. So be careful\! Lets say I write this useless piece of code: ``` Copy ``` Here pointer `ptr` points to the address (\!) of the structure variable `audi` but beside address structure also has a chunk of data (\!)! The first member of the chunk of data has the same address than structure itself and you can get it's data by only dereferencing a pointer like this `ptr` (no braces). But If you want to acess any other member than the first one, you have to add a designator like `.km`, `.kph`, `.kg` which are nothing more than offsets to the base address of the chunk of data... But because of the [preceedence](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/operator_precedence) you can't write `ptr.kg` as access operator `.` is evaluated before dereference operator `` and you would get `(ptr.kg)` which is not possible as pointer has no members! And compiler knows this and will therefore issue an error e.g.: ``` Copy ``` Instead you use this `(ptr).kg` and you force compiler to 1st* dereference the pointer and enable acess to the chunk of data and 2nd you add an offset (designator) to choose the member. Check this image I made: [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/hSaCj.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/hSaCj.png) But if you would have nested members this syntax would become unreadable and therefore `->` was introduced. I think readability is the only justifiable reason for using it as this `ptr->kg` is much easier to write than `(ptr).kg`. Now let us write this differently so that you see the connection more clearly. `(ptr).kg` ⟹ `(&audi).kg` ⟹ `audi.kg`. Here I first used the fact that `ptr` is an "address of `audi`"* i.e. `&audi` and fact that "reference" `&` and "dereference" `` operators cancel eachother out. [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/61566897 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/61566897/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications [edited May 8, 2020 at 10:05](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/61566897/revisions "show all edits to this post") answered May 2, 2020 at 22:02 [![71GA's user avatar](https://i.sstatic.net/Jz42l.jpg?s=64)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/689242/71ga) [71GA](https://stackoverflow.com/users/689242/71ga) 1,54199 gold badges4747 silver badges8585 bronze badges ## Comments Add a comment This answer is useful 12 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. ``` Copy ``` Here to access the values of `i` and `j` we can use the variable `a` and the pointer `p` as follows: `a.i`, `(p).i` and `p->i` are all the same. Here `.` is a "Direct Selector" and `->` is an "Indirect Selector". [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/42173683 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/42173683/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications [edited Apr 21, 2023 at 11:54](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/42173683/revisions "show all edits to this post") answered Feb 11, 2017 at 8:01 [![JgWangdu's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/7018c8ff4a937c398ab19bbd1c851275?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG&f=y&so-version=2)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/7173263/jgwangdu) [JgWangdu](https://stackoverflow.com/users/7173263/jgwangdu) 31722 silver badges99 bronze badges ## Comments Add a comment This answer is useful 1 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. I had to make a small change to Jack's program to get it to run. After declaring the struct pointer pvar, point it to the address of var. I found this solution on page 242 of Stephen Kochan's Programming in C. ``` Copy ``` Run this in vim with the following command: ``` Copy:!gcc -o var var.c && ./var ``` Will output: ``` Copy ``` [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/28934009 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/28934009/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Mar 9, 2015 at 1:35 [![Rich Vogt's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/0632cac8e7c2122efdd45f93657737ec?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/2069474/rich-vogt) [Rich Vogt](https://stackoverflow.com/users/2069474/rich-vogt) 9311 silver badge99 bronze badges ## 1 Comment Add a comment [![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/cbe5582212032c88ca6592defb48f36b?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/187890/jibberia) jibberia [jibberia](https://stackoverflow.com/users/187890/jibberia) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment53969484_28934009) vim tip: use `%` to represent the current filename. Like so: `!gcc % && ./a.out` 2015-10-12T08:10:06.733Z+00:00 4 Reply - Copy link This answer is useful 1 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. The `->` operator makes the code more readable than the `` operator in some situations. Such as: (quoted from the [EDK II project](http://sourceforge.net/projects/edk2/)) ``` Copy ``` 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? [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/31943584 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/31943584/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications [edited Feb 11, 2017 at 9:32](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/31943584/revisions "show all edits to this post") [![Donald Duck is with Ukraine's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/2e017633cda5465e6683c74992cdec5e?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/4284627/donald-duck-is-with-ukraine) [Donald Duck is with Ukraine](https://stackoverflow.com/users/4284627/donald-duck-is-with-ukraine) 9,1002323 gold badges8282 silver badges109109 bronze badges answered Aug 11, 2015 at 13:47 [![smwikipedia's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/8ccbe08a132ba61eae9ff8984ca44e81?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/264052/smwikipedia) [smwikipedia](https://stackoverflow.com/users/264052/smwikipedia) 65\.2k101101 gold badges336336 silver badges519519 bronze badges ## Comments Add a comment This answer is useful 1 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. ``` Copy ``` output is 5 5 5 [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/50638678 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 4.0") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/50638678/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Jun 1, 2018 at 7:56 [![prashanth's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/41bbf47f6beda0353b8bab81d78afdc3?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG&f=y&so-version=2)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/9847765/prashanth) [prashanth](https://stackoverflow.com/users/9847765/prashanth) 1111 bronze badge ## Comments Add a comment This answer is useful 0 Save this answer. Show activity on this post. ``` Copy ``` [Share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/30545537 "Short permalink to this answer") Share a link to this answer Copy link [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ "The current license for this post: CC BY-SA 3.0") [Improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/30545537/edit) Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications [edited May 30, 2015 at 11:29](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/30545537/revisions "show all edits to this post") [![Tommy Andersen's user avatar](https://i.sstatic.net/fjZrH.jpg?s=64)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/111143/tommy-andersen) [Tommy Andersen](https://stackoverflow.com/users/111143/tommy-andersen) 7,31011 gold badge3535 silver badges5555 bronze badges answered May 30, 2015 at 11:23 [![Gopal Rao's user avatar](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/abfdb1c6d07813cb5db72d98c3b55d86?s=64&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/4956051/gopal-rao) [Gopal Rao](https://stackoverflow.com/users/4956051/gopal-rao) 911 bronze badge ## 2 Comments Add a comment [![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/5cfe5f7d64f44be04f147295f5c7b88e?s=48&d=identicon&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/207421/user207421) user207421 [user207421](https://stackoverflow.com/users/207421/user207421) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment138400189_30545537) Mere code is not an answer. You have to explain. 2024-05-20T04:20:25.757Z+00:00 0 Reply - Copy link [![](https://i.sstatic.net/TMTape2J.png?s=64)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/17726418/cppuix) CPPUIX [CPPUIX](https://stackoverflow.com/users/17726418/cppuix) [Over a year ago](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c#comment138415086_30545537) ["Not an answer" flagging guidelines](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/265553/17726418). 2024-05-21T17:24:13.567Z+00:00 0 Reply - Copy link [Protected question](https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/protect-questions). To answer this question, you need to have at least 10 reputation on this site (not counting the [association bonus](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/141648/what-is-the-association-bonus-and-how-does-it-work)). The reputation requirement helps protect this question from spam and non-answer activity. Start asking to get answers Find the answer to your question by asking. 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Readable Markdown	Well I have to add something as well. Structure is a bit different than array because array is a pointer and structure is not. So be careful\! Lets say I write this useless piece of code: ``` #include <stdio.h> typedef struct{ int km; int kph; int kg; } car; int main(void){ car audi = {12000, 230, 760}; car ptr = &audi; } ``` Here pointer `ptr` points to the address (\!) of the structure variable `audi` but beside address structure also has a chunk of data* (\!)! The first member of the chunk of data has the same address than structure itself and you can get it's data by only dereferencing a pointer like this `ptr` (no braces). But If you want to acess any other member than the first one, you have to add a designator like `.km`, `.kph`, `.kg` which are nothing more than offsets to the base address of the chunk of data... But because of the [preceedence](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/operator_precedence) you can't write `ptr.kg` as access operator `.` is evaluated before dereference operator `` and you would get `(ptr.kg)` which is not possible as pointer has no members! And compiler knows this and will therefore issue an error e.g.: ``` error: ‘ptr’ is a pointer; did you mean to use ‘->’? printf("%d\n", ptr.km); ``` Instead you use this `(ptr).kg` and you force compiler to 1st dereference the pointer and enable acess to the chunk of data and 2nd you add an offset (designator) to choose the member. Check this image I made: [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/hSaCj.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/hSaCj.png) But if you would have nested members this syntax would become unreadable and therefore `->` was introduced. I think readability is the only justifiable reason for using it as this `ptr->kg` is much easier to write than `(ptr).kg`. Now let us write this differently so that you see the connection more clearly. `(ptr).kg` ⟹ `(&audi).kg` ⟹ `audi.kg`. Here I first used the fact that `ptr` is an "address of `audi`"* i.e. `&audi` and fact that "reference" `&` and "dereference" `*` operators cancel eachother out.
Shard	169 (laksa)
Root Hash	714406497480128969
Unparsed URL	com,stackoverflow!/questions/2575048/arrow-operator-usage-in-c s443