Is it not possible to dereference a pointer to an object that's stored in an array using the indirection(dereference) operator or am I doing something wrong?
#include <iostream>
class A {
public:
virtual void test() {
std::cout << "A\n";
}
};
class B : public A {
public:
void test() {
std::cout << "B\n";
}
};
int main() {
A* v[2];
v[0] = new A();
v[1] = new B();
v[0]->test();
*(v[1]).test(); // Error! If the arrow operator is used instead
// though, the code compiles without a problem.
return 0;
}
Here is the error I get:
$ g++ -std=c++11 test.cpp && ./a.out
test.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
test.cpp:26:13: error: request for member ‘test’ in ‘v[1]’, which is of
pointer type ‘A*’ (maybe you meant to use ‘->’ ?)
*(v[1]).test();
According to the Operator Precedence, operator.
(member access operator) has higher precedence than operator*
(indirection/dereference operator) , so *(v[1]).test();
is equivalent to *((v[1]).test());
, which is not valid. (You can't call test()
on v[1]
which is A*
via opeartor.
.)
Change it to
(*v[1]).test();