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Dot and arrow operators

Short answer

Dot operator (.) accesses members of a structure variable, e.g., var.member. Arrow operator (->) accesses members through a structure pointer: ptr->member, equivalent to (*ptr).member. Use dot for structure itself, arrow for a pointer.

Explain dot and arrow operators for accessing the members of a structure.

Dot operator (.) It is the member access operator used with a structure variable: variable.member.

Arrow operator (->) It is used with a pointer to a structure: pointer->member. It is the same as dereferencing the pointer first, (*pointer).member. The brackets are required because . has higher precedence than *.

#include <stdio.h>

struct point {
    int x, y;
};

int main(void)
{
    struct point p = {3, 4};
    struct point *ptr = &p;

    printf("Using dot   : %d %d\n", p.x, p.y);
    printf("Using arrow : %d %d\n", ptr->x, ptr->y);
    printf("Same as     : %d %d\n", (*ptr).x, (*ptr).y);
    return 0;
}

Output:

Using dot   : 3 4
Using arrow : 3 4
Same as     : 3 4

Use the dot when you have the structure itself, and the arrow when you have its address (for example in a function that receives a structure pointer, or with dynamic memory).

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

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