Pointers to member variables

To access a member of a class, you need to have a “handle” to the particular instance, as either the instance itself, or a pointer or reference to it. Given a class instance, you can point to various of its members with a pointer-to-member, IF you get the syntax correct! Of course, the pointer has to be declared to be of the same type as what you are pointing to…

class Class {
public:
    int x, y, z;
    char m, n, o;
}; // Class

int x;  // Global variable

int main() {
    Class c;        // Need a Class instance to play with
    Class *p = &c;  // Need a Class pointer to play with

    int *p_i;       // Pointer to an int

    p_i = &x;       // Now pointing to x
    p_i = &c.x;     // Now pointing to c's x

    int Class::*p_C_i; // Pointer to an int within Class

    p_C_i = &Class::x; // Point to x within any Class
    int i = c.*p_C_i;  // Use p_c_i to fetch x from c's instance
    p_C_i = &Class::y; // Point to y within any Class
    i = c.*p_C_i;      // Use p_c_i to fetch y from c's instance

    p_C_i = &Class::m; // ERROR! m is a char, not an int!

    char Class::*p_C_c = &Class::m; // That's better...
} // main()

The syntax of pointer-to-member requires some extra syntactic elements:

• To define the type of the pointer, you need to mention the base type, as well as the fact that it is inside a class: int Class::*ptr;.
• If you have a class or reference and want to use it with a pointer-to-member, you need to use the .* operator (akin to the . operator).
• If you have a pointer to a class and want to use it with a pointer-to-member, you need to use the ->* operator (akin to the -> operator).