Lecture 5: this Pointer

Question 1

What is the difference between the memory allocation of the data members of an object of a class and its functions?

Answer 1

• When a new object is created, each object has specific memory reserved for its data members
• Functions of a class get memory that is shared by all objects of that class

Question 2

How does the function know which object of the class it has to act on?

Answer 2

• The address of the calling object is passed as a hidden argument to the function
The address is stored in the variable called this pointer

Question 3

Which has more precedence: dot operator or indirection operator?

Answer 3

Dot operator

Question 4

2 cases in which this pointer may be required explicitly

Answer 4

When local variable and data member have same name

To return reference to calling object