Calling C++ class methods via a function pointer

Question

How do I obtain a function pointer for a class member function, and later call that member function with a specific object? I’d like to write:

class Dog : A         


        

Answer 1

Minimal runnable example

main.cpp

#include 

class C {
    public:
        int i;
        C(int i) : i(i) {}
        int m(int j) { return this->i + j; }
};

int main() {
    // Get a method pointer.
    int (C::*p)(int) = &C::m;

    // Create a test object.
    C c(1);
    C *cp = &c;

    // Operator .*
    assert((c.*p)(2) == 3);

    // Operator ->*
    assert((cp->*p)(2) == 3);
}

Compile and run:

g++ -ggdb3 -O0 -std=c++11 -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -o main.out main.cpp
./main.out

Tested in Ubuntu 18.04.

You cannot change the order of the parenthesis or omit them. The following do not work:

c.*p(2)
c.*(p)(2)

GCC 9.2 would fail with:

main.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
main.cpp:19:18: error: must use ‘.*’ or ‘->*’ to call pointer-to-member function in ‘p (...)’, e.g. ‘(... ->* p) (...)’
   19 |     assert(c.*p(2) == 3);
      |

C++11 standard

.* and ->* are a single operators introduced in C++ for this purpose, and not present in C.

C++11 N3337 standard draft:

• 2.13 "Operators and punctuators" has a list of all operators, which contains .* and ->*.
• 5.5 "Pointer-to-member operators" explains what they do