Difference between &(*similarObject) and similarObject? Are they not same?

Question

Can someone please explain this to me

dynamic_cast( &(*similarObject) );

What is the point of doing the address of

Answer 1

It may be that the type of similarObject has overloaded operator* and so it returns something whose address you're passing to dynamic_cast.

&(*x) and x may not be always the same thing. For example, think of iterator:

std::map::iterator it = v.begin();

Then it and &(*it) are two different thing:

• The type of it is std::map::iterator
• The type of &(*it) is std::pair*

They're not at all same. Similar thing may happen with your code-snippet as well.