What is the difference between the dot (.) operator and -> in C++? [duplicate]

Answer 1

The -> is simply syntactic sugar for a pointer dereference,

As others have said:

pointer->method();

is a simple method of saying:

(*pointer).method();

For more pointer fun, check out Binky, and his magic wand of dereferencing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvoHwFvAvQE