not to a specific instance of that member in an object. This type of pointer is called a pointer to a class member or a pointer-to-member. It is not same as normal C++ pointer. Instead it provides only an offset into an object of the member’s class at which that member can be found. Since member pointers are not true pointers, the . and -> can not be applied to them. Instead we must use the special operators .* and ->* . They allow access to a member of a class.

Example:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

class MyClass

{

public:

int val;

MyClass(int i)

{

val = i;

}

int double_val()

{

return val + val;

}

};

int main()

{

int MyClass::*data; //data member pointer

int(MyClass::*func)(); //function member pointer

MyClass obj1(1), obj2(2); //create objects

data =&MyClass::val; //get offset of data val

func=&MyClass::double_val; //get offset of function double_val()

cout << “The values are:”;

cout << ob1.*data << “ “ <<ob2.*data << “n”;

cout<< “Here they are doubled:”;

cout << (ob1.*func)() << “ “ <<(ob2.*func)()<< “n”;

return 0;

}

Here data and func are member pointers. As shown in the program, when declaring pointers to members, you must specify the class and use the scope resolution operator.