arrow operator c 2b 2b

1/* 
2 the arrow operator is used for accessing members (fields or methods)
3 of a class or struct
4 
5 it dereferences the type, and then performs an element selection (dot) operation
6*/
7
8#include <iostream>
9using std::cout;
10
11class Entity {
12public:
13	const char* name = nullptr;
14private:
15	int x, y;
16public:
17	Entity(int x, int y, const char* name)
18		: x(x), y(y), name(name) {
19		printEntityPosition(this); // "this" just means a pointer to the current Entity
20	}
21
22	int getX() { return x; }
23	int getY() { return y; }
24
25	friend void printEntityPosition(Entity* e);
26
27};
28
29// accessing methods using arrow
30void printEntityPosition(Entity* e) {
31	cout << "Position: " << e->getX() << ", " << e->getY() << "\n";
32}
33
34int main() {
35	/* ----- ARROW ----- */
36
37	Entity* pointer = new Entity(1, 1, "Fred");
38	//printEntityPosition(pointer); redacted for redundancy (say that 5 times fast)
39	
40  	cout << (*pointer).name << "\n"; // behind the scenes
41	cout << pointer->name << "\n"; // print the name (with an arrow)
42
43	/* ----- NOT ARROW ----- */
44
45	Entity not_a_pointer(2, 2, "Derf");
46	//printEntityPosition(&not_a_pointer); & to convert to pointer
47
48	cout << not_a_pointer.name << "\n"; // print the name (with a dot)
49
50	/* ----- LITERALLY NEITHER ----- */
51
52	std::cin.get(); // wait for input
53	return 0; // exit program
54}
55
56