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The THIS Pointer¶

Adapted from: “Object-Oriented Programming Using C++” by Ira Pohl (Addison- Wesley)

Program that demonstrates the use of the this pointer in C++¶

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

// The this pointer

class c_pair {
    public:
        void init(char b) { c2 = 1 + (c1 = b); }
        c_pair increment() { c1++; c2++; return (*this); }
        c_pair* where_am_I() { return this; }
        void print() { cout << c1 << c2 << '\t'; }
    private:
        char c1, c2;
};

int main()
{
    c_pair a, b;

    a.init('A');
    a.print();
    cout << " is at " << a.where_am_I() << endl;

    b.init('B');
    b.print();
    cout << " is at " << b.where_am_I() << endl;
    b.increment().print();
}

The above program is compiled and run using Gnu Compiler Collection (g++):

import os
root_dir = os.getcwd()

code_dir = root_dir + "/" + "Cpp_Code/Chapter_5_7_The_this_Pointer"

os.chdir(code_dir)

build_command = os.system("g++ c_pair.cpp -w -o c_pair")

exec_status = os.system("./c_pair")

AB	 is at 0x7fffc33e9a2c
BC	 is at 0x7fffc33e9a2a
CD