C++ Member (dot & arrow) Operators
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");
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.
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.